Every Rose Has its Thorns
by space cadet4
Summary: It all starts with a tournament, innocent enough, until dark and mysterious forces take an interest. Question is, who are the bad guys?
1. Default Chapter

Hi, this is my first fic, well my first published fic anyways, umm me and my friend came up with this one, the 2 main characters belong to us, aside from that I own nothing, you hear me? NOTHING! Oh yah, please R&R I need to know if I suck   
  
Crimson rolled lazily to his left, dislodging Ryzada in his attempts to reach his alarm clock, Ryzada hit the floor with a dull thud  
  
"oww jeez Crimson, that kinda hurt you know" complained Ryzada from her newfound position on the floor  
  
"If you would pay for your own sleeping quarters, this would not be such a frequent occurrence" came the dispassionate reply from the tall dark ranger  
  
Ryzada's usually pretty and cheerful face took on a gloomy expression "ever since auntie Elisel disappeared, I haven't been able to afford to live on my own, it's hard making a living, especially when you are a talent less excuse for a hunter like me"  
  
Crimson had to admit she had a point, being a hunter was no longer the lucrative job opportunity it once was, mission pickings were slim, and the payments low, after all, there were plenty of hunters who would take the job, it was no longer a rare service, perhaps the hunter training camp was a bad move?  
  
"you aren't talent less Ryz" Ryzada smiled at Crimsons reassurance "and anyway, we'll get work soon, you see if we don't" Crimson continued "they are going to start the tournaments now that there are so many hunters"  
  
yeah, thought Ryzada, the tournaments. pitting hunters against each other in a brutal and barbaric display of blood lust, but still its nice that Crimson is trying to make me feel better, god knows anyone else would have thrown me out on my ass by now  
  
"you know I don't support the idea of those tournaments Crimson, the whole idea is just terrible" Ryzada had strong views on almost everything  
  
Crimson shrugged his indifference "Yes I know Ryz, its barbaric and cruel, but hey, if it puts food on the table, I'm all for it"  
  
Ryzada's hand flew to her open mouth "oh jesus, you aren't are you? Oh you are, you're going to compete in one of those awful things"  
  
Crimson shrugged again, and pushed his blue bangs out of his eyes "so what if I am Ryz? We need the money, you know we do, and this is how we can get it, don't you see? Its my big chance, if I can make it in the tournaments, then maybe I can live up to my fathers reputation"  
  
"CRIMSON!" Ryzada screamed at him "YOU HAVE TO STOP LIVING IN HIS SHADOW! HE IS DEAD OKAY? D-E-A-D, WHO CARES WHAT HE THOUGHT OF YOU! WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU'RE." she stopped suddenly and looked at her feet  
  
"I'm what? Huh Ryz? What am I?" Crimson snapped  
  
"I. I don't know." said Ryzada, still staring at her feet, thankful that her long hair prevented Crimson from seeing the redness of her cheeks  
  
"I'll tell you what I am Ryzada Ermintine! I am a HUNTER, a ranger! A proud descendant of Erakamus Pryandomar, and I don't care what you say, I WILL fight in those tournaments and I WILL be the best ranger ever to walk the corridors of pioneer 2!" his own face coloring as a result of this out burst Crimson turned away, at this moment Ryzada Ermintine, niece of the great hunter Elisel Littlewing, burst into tears and fled, hands clutching her precious daggers, as her mind worked at top speed  
  
"What did you say that for? You know he won't forgive you? but he will! He must! I can't bear the thought of him turning away from me! Why is that? Are you really so pathetic that you actually NEED him? NO! I'm not pathetic! I'm a skilled warrior and a good person! You know that's what he always said? Is it so bad that you can't even think your own thoughts now? SHUT UP! Please just shut up. whats the matter little girl? Afraid of the truth?  
  
It was then that Ryzada's tearful flight brought her to the room of her best friend, and official advisor Aurora  
  
"A.Aurora?" Ryzada stuttered "Are you awake"  
  
a slightly misty voice answered her query "since when have you visited and found me asleep?" Ryzada relaxed, there was something about Aurora's voice, so soothing and sensible  
  
"umm can I come in please? I really need to talk to you"  
  
"of course child, my door is always open to you, especially when you have had an argument with Crimson, do not worry, it is not your fault"  
  
Ryada opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her "how did you know that? Have you been spying on us?"  
  
Aurora gave a wan smile "Ryzada my dear, you spend every minute of the day along side that boy, an argument between you is the only conceivable problem that I believe could arise, now tell me about it"  
  
"well" Ryzada began " last night the heater stopped working so I curled up next to him and."  
  
54 rooms down the corridor, Crimson sat in his Ranger garb, his sniper across his knees and his head in his hands  
  
"dammit, why do I always do this?" he questioned the air " I want to help her, I really do, but all I ever do is shout at her, she doesn't deserve this!"  
  
"worry not Crimson" a voice intruded on Crimsons thoughts "she will not take it to heart, and now she knows of your intentions to enter the tournament"  
  
Crimson climbed to his feet "who the hell asked you Tatsu? But you're right as always, I just hope to high heavens that she never decides I'm not worth it"  
  
Tatsu, a short hunter, threw his head back and laughed "her decide you are not worth it? Doubtful, indeed it is you who is the fool for allowing such a drain on your already insufficient funds"  
  
Crimson shrugged, causing his mag, Madhu to bounce, it chirped its annoyance at the motion "say as you will Tatsu my friend, soon my meseta worries will be over, for I am going to enter the tournament and come out supreme champion!"  
  
Tatsu laughed again "and spend your winnings on some weapon or other, no doubt! Besides, you will never win, because I am entering too!"  
  
Now was crimsons turn to laugh "I'll be sure to watch that you do not slice my ankles off Tatsu, my bloodline is superior, I'm a born Ranger"  
  
"Is that so? Well mister B, we'll see how you fare when you are pitched against some true hunters, there will be some top quality competitors, joking aside my friend, some of the names already on the lists are VERY famous, we shall be lucky to pass the preliminaries"  
  
B, Crimsons grade from boot camp, he knew he deserved an A, but it seemed that the drill instructor bore a grudge against him, "true, true" he mused " but no matter, what say you to the idea of visiting guild HQ and browsing today's pointless errands? We should meet Ryzada along the way"  
  
"no, no" Tatsu replied hastily "I prefer to keep my head on my shoulders"  
  
"What do you mean? These pathetic "missions" never require that we leave the ship, there is no danger here" Crimson was now curious  
  
"Well." Tatsu replied shifting from foot to foot " its just that. rumour is, they are hiring hunters to go to ragol and bring back specimens for the pit fights" "Really? Now that's interesting news indeed, I thought the pit fights were discarded as illegal and dangerous"  
  
"with the creation of the tournaments, there is no reason not to pit hunters against monsters, after all, if we can fight other people, why not wild beasts, its too dangerous to accept Crimson, even if the pay is good.oh.damn"  
  
"good pay?!? What are we waiting for Tatsu? Come on! HQ is this way!" with that being said, Crimson grabbed Tatsu by the arm and dragged him in the direction of guild HQ, barely allowing his short friend time enough to wonder why on earth he mentioned meseta to Crimson  
  
umm so what do you all think? Interesting? Boring? Just plain garbage? Review positively and I'll continue the story, if not, I guess this gets abandoned with my other failed projects. 


	2. Mission unlikely

Okay, chapter 2, well more like chapter 2-2 since this is a repost, and basically this AN is me complaining about my lost reviews, I did have the highest review count in the PSO catergory!

Crimson came to a skidding stop at the guild counter, narrowly avoiding collision with a slim newman conversing with the receptionist  
  
"Are you sure?" asked the girl "Maybe you could make an exception?"  
  
The receptionist smiled faintly "I'm sorry Alice, the client specifically requested a full team of hunters for this job"  
  
Alice's expression turned sad as she slowly walked away from the counter "That's okay miss, it would have been nice to have the meseta, that's all"  
  
Immediately bells began ringing in Crimsons head, meseta, lovely, golden, shiny and valuable meseta "WAIT!" he cried, Alice almost jumped in surprise at the sudden noise "Alice? Exactly how much meseta is the reward for this job?"  
  
Alice, her heart rate having returned to normal, lifted her head "Umm 4000 meseta, why?"  
  
The cogs of Crimsons mind were no longer turning, they were spinning, 4000 mesesta, 4 hunters, that's 1000 each, and if the 4th hunter was Ryzada? That was it, 2000 meseta was not something Crimson could let slip away. Spinning Tatsu round, he shoved him out of the door.  
  
"Go and get Ryzada, she'll be at Aurora's place" Crimson instructed his friend, Crimson whirled round and grabbed Alice by the arm, causing her to cry out in panic  
  
"Hey let go of me!" she said, struggling against Crimsons grip  
  
Crimson let go as if his hand had been burned, he always made it a point never to harm a lady  
  
"Sorry miss, I guess I got a little carried away, please just wait here with me, my friend will be back soon with a 4th hunter"  
  
"Okay" said Alice rubbing her arm a little, she wasn't quite sure she should trust this guy, and she knew nothing of the other 2 who were going to accompany them, usually when hunters worked together it was as a group of friends, not complete strangers as she was about to work with, Alice let out a sigh, she wasn't happy about this, but she really did need the reward. Smoothing her robes down she took a seat, about 4 chairs away from Crimson.  
  
"What? Are you afraid I might bite?" Crimson said, grinning reassuringly, not that this helped, as a black mask covered a large portion of his face.  
  
"Maybe I am a little" replied Alice, a little uneasily "I hardly know you"  
  
Crimson's smile widened "Then allow me to introduce myself fair lady, I am Crimson Pryandomar"  
  
Alice's eyes widened slightly "Y-y-your father w-wouldn't have been Erakamus Pryandomar?"  
  
"Indeed he was, and I am his last living relative, and I am at your service" said Crimson, still smiling, and bowing deeply  
  
Alice remained silent after that. To think, a blood relative of Erakamus Pryandomar, one of the greatest rangers ever known, he disappeared a few months ago, and now his son was assisting her on a job? Unbelievable.  
  
The minutes passed in silence, Alice lost deep within her own thoughts, Crimson checking and re-checking every aspect of his sniper, then at last, at least 20 minutes after his departure, Tatsu returned towing behind him a rather confused looking Ryzada  
  
Crimson got to his feet and shouldered his weapon "Tatsu, what took you so long, she was only down the hall"  
  
Tatsu smiled broadly in response "It seems that the lovely Ryzada had too much herbal tea, it took me more than a few moments to rouse her." One look at Ryzada's disheveled appearance provided proof of Tatsu's statement, was it even possible to wrinkle body armour?  
  
"Well I'm glad you could make it" Crimson said, as usual taking command of the team "you'll notice that we have a new member with us, as this job is going to require a full team, and I cannot be bothered to negotiate with Aurora" Tatsu stifled a laugh behind one hand, earning a sharp look from Crimson. "Anyway, I believe introductions are in order"  
  
Tatsu stepped forwards, "Hello I'm Tatsu Littlewing, I'm a hunter and a damned good one at that!" he exclaimed proudly, wielding his brand, to illustrate his point  
  
"I'm Ryzada Ermintine, I'm a hunter too, I'm not very good though" Ryzada added the last part quietly, then as if inspired she continued "I can use a few techniques"  
  
"And I am Crimson Pryandomar, but, you already knew that, and like my father, I'm a hunter, so how about you introduce yourself young lady?"  
  
Alice sat stunned for a short moment, Littlewing, Ermintine and Pryandomar. Very famous names, then she stood "Hello I am Alice Arke, I don't have a famous name like you all do, but one day, mine will be known all across Pioneer. Oh I'm a force by the way"  
  
"Right" said Crimson "Now that we all know each other, lets make this job officially ours" He walked to the guild counter, Alice, Tatsu and Ryzada following a short way behind "Hello" Crimson smiled at the receptionist, his mask making it a pointless exercise. "We would like to sign up for that job that this young lady" He waved a hand to indicate Alice "was asking about earlier"  
  
"Are you certain?" Questioned the receptionist "This job is not one that you can cancel, its from the tournament manager and I feel that the risk far out weighs the-"  
  
Crimson cut her off "yeah yeah I know, outweighs the reward, its monster capturing isn't it? Well it won't be a problem for my team, just sign us up"  
  
"Okay, your name is now in the computer, you may not cancel, refusal to attempt completion of job will result in your hunters license being revoked" The receptionist smiled "here is the letter containing mission details, enjoy"  
  
Crimson took the envelope and left the guild building, once outside he was immediately beset by Tatsu  
  
"Come on Crimson, open the envelope already, tell us what our job is" he whined  
  
"Yes we do need to know what we are doing" said Ryzada, attempting to look over Crimsons shoulder, a tactic that failed miserably as a result of the 10 inch height difference between the pair  
  
"Yes" said Alice, politely "We should know exactly what we are doing before we warp down to Ragol"  
  
"Fine" said Crimson, tearing open the envelope and holding the letter in one hand "If you all want to know so badly, then I will tell you. Our mission is-" he looked at the letter briefly, his eyes flickering twice over a certain point. Crimson uttered a word that made Ryzada gasp and Alice blush, Tatsu however laughed  
  
"What is the matter Crimson? Scared by one of the "pathetic missions" what are we doing? Capturing a rag rappy?" he taunted  
  
Crimson, looking grim turned the letter so that everybody could read the message, written in bold  
  
This is a special mission, there is NO canceling, and NO negotiating, you  
  
are to warp down to the forest area of Ragol and advance to the central dome area, extreme caution is advised, monster activity is high, once you reach the dome, you are under instruction to locate a dragon. Find one and  
  
capture it, bring it back ALIVE 


	3. An unexpected ambush

This is my gift and this is my curse, who am I? I am an author! Lol never let people know you can write, friends will swamp you with requests, fortunately this fic is my priority. Raven will be making an appearance this chapter (I try to add new characters ASAP)  
  
The small group of temporarily stunned hunters were now picking up their derailed trains of thought, Alice was the first to speak  
  
"Well let's hurry to the transporter, we have a job to do," she said quietly  
  
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM!" raged Tatsu, understandably upset "We are about to go dragon hunting, through a den of wild monsters. With nowhere near good enough equipment and if we don't do it, we are henceforth unemployed AND YOU WANT TO JUST GET ON WITH IT!"  
  
"If we are doomed either way, then we may as well attempt it" came Alice's simple reply  
  
"..," Was the best Tatsu could think of in response  
  
With this being said, or in Tatsu's case, not said, the party solemnly moved out, stepping onto the green pad of the transporter and activating it.  
  
Upon their entrance to the forest, several sounds greeted them, the first being the growl of a savage wolf leaping on the attack, the second being Ryzada screaming as she turned in time to see the beasts jump, the third, a pulse of photon fire as Crimson expertly blasted a hole in the wolfs throat, this did nothing to discourage the remaining 5 wolves  
  
"Are you okay Ryz?" asked Crimson, stepping in a circle matching the wolf who had identified him as prey  
  
"I'm fine thank you" Ryzada answered "how did these wolves know we were coming?" she neatly ducked the attack from a wolf who thought she had been caught off guard, slicing her dagger along its side crippling the beast, it landed awkwardly and was immediately frozen solid by a barta launched by Alice "That's four left!" called Alice  
  
"Make that three" shouted Tatsu, pulling his brand free of his recently skewered assailant  
  
"Can nobody count? There is only 1" laughed Crimson his sniper fire bringing down another wolf  
  
"CRIMSON THERE ARE TWO! BEHIND YOU!" Ryzada screamed  
  
Crimson Whirled round, a mental command to Madhu his mag switching his sniper to a saber, he swung quickly, the saber piercing the wolf's heart, but the impact caused Crimson to stumble, leaving him wide open to the leap of the last wolf, the two went down a tangle of man and beast, Crimsons yells almost as animalistic as the wolves fierce growls "CRIMSON!" screamed Ryzada helplessly "Alice? Please you have to help him!"  
  
"There is nothing I can do, said Alice, I cannot risk striking your friend with a technique, I'm sorry Ryzada"  
  
Tatsu had already exchanged his brand for a handgun, firing at the struggling ranger and wolf, Ryzada quickly knocked the gun out of his hands  
  
"You IDIOT! Are you trying to kill him?" Ryzada yelled, almost hysteric from panic, in the meantime, Crimson and the wolf had fought to a near dead lock, Crimson employing both hands to keep the wolfs jaws from closing around his throat, they were however still in motion, and none of his 3 companions dared to launch an attack, photon energy was far more hazardous to hunter than any beast could be. But the wolf was winning, its jaws closing slowly, but still beyond Crimsons power to halt.  
  
Crimson laughed bitterly, so this was how his "great career" was to end? In the belly of a wolf, because he was surrounded by friends who refused to help? Perfect, a lonely end to a lonely person, he just regretted one thing, and that was  
  
Crimsons thoughts were cut off as he suddenly felt an absence of weight. The wolf was gone. Crimson climbed to his feet and looked at his friends concerned faces  
  
"My thanks to whichever one of you three saved me" he smiled, still a pointless expression  
  
"We didn't save you Crimson, we were too scared we would hit you accidentally" admitted Ryzada  
  
"Then who did?" asked Crimson, plainly bewildered  
  
"It was him" answered Ryzada, pointing towards a darkly dressed hunter who had previously escaped Crimsons notice "He leapt down from one of these trees and sliced the wolf nearly in half! He must have thrown it 5 foot away!"  
  
"A mysterious rescuer" Sighed Alice "I wish I could have one"  
  
Crimson ignored this comment and walked up to the black clad hunter  
  
"My name is Crimson and I thank you deeply for saving my life" He said extending one hand in a gesture of friendship  
  
The mysterious hunter looked briefly down at Crimsons hand, he made no move to accept it "Those who are weak have no place on the battle field"  
  
Crimson's eyes blazed, NOBODY insulted his combat skills, His sniper materializing in his hands, he looked darkly at the stranger "I come from a noble line and have worked hard to earn a reputation, if you were watching you would know that I was outnumbered in valiant defense of my comrades" Crimson always spoke in proper English when he felt the need to make a point  
  
Ignoring the words the hunter looked down yet again, regarding Crimsons sniper "Rifles.., a cowards weapon, I would expect no less from one such as yourself"  
  
By this time, Tatsu had arrived at Crimsons side, ready to support his friend in the event of a fight "watch your mouth!" he warned "me and my friends do NOT like being insulted, isn't that right Ryz?" peculiarly while Crimsons speech improved with anger, Tatsu's became more base  
  
"You should be nicer when talking to strangers sir, especially when you are outnumbered four to one, Crimson may own you his life, but Tatsu and I don't owe you a thing" Ryzada also took Crimsons side, as always  
  
Alice said nothing, being content simply to observe, although she was beginning to like this stranger less than she had before he had opened his mouth.  
  
"My name is Raven, I do not fear you or any other, maybe later we will fight, I have no time for this, I will not save you again, you are on your own" with this Raven turned and left, disappearing with near the same rapidity as he had arrived  
  
"What a rude person" said Alice, breaking her silence  
  
"That he was" agreed Tatsu, once more returning to his usual mode of speech "But I believe the most important question is, why were there wolves waiting for us?"  
  
"It may have been nothing," said Crimson slowly "but I think that just maybe the beasts have figured out that the telepad is where hunters appear from"  
  
"But they are just monsters, they aren't intelligent at all, they don't think like we do" said Ryzada, a frown marring her brow  
  
"Either way" Alice interjected "It might be a good idea to move, standing in one place is a bad idea if you don't want to attract the attention of wild animals"  
  
"Right" said Crimson "We're moving out, be on your guard" with that, the party moved slowly down the well traveled path, constantly alert, watching for the appearance of more monsters, all of them except Tatsu, who was still running ideas through his mind, Elisel had mentioned something about the monsters, how they weren't as they used to be, Tatsu has merely laughed at this, saying Elisel was starting to sound like an old woman, often earning himself a beating in a "sparring match." But maybe there was some truth behind it, could it be? Were these beasts changing? Learning? Evolving? This could be very, very bad news.  
  
Wow I'm really surprised my first fic has been such a success, ahhh well just goes to show, never listen to your critics, hmm should have thought about how many people might submit characters, its not a problem now, but I warn you people, I may start turning down characters, easiest way round this is to write a really good bio, remember the more background I have on your hunter, the better I can portray them 


	4. origins

Sorry about not updating for a while, I had other things that got in the way, oh and apologies to Erithacus, fine you don't use too many female characters, actually I'm more guilty of that, oh well who cares enjoy the chapter

After a while, and no further monster attacks, except for a rappy nest that was quite simply avoided, the party relaxed somewhat and began chatting, temporarily forgetting the fact that they were in all likelihood, walking to their own death, it was Alice who started the conversation  
  
"Tatsu?" she began timidly "What kind of person was Elisel?"  
  
Tatsu replied uneasily, what was he supposed to say? He hardly knew his aunt at all "Well for the most part she was a kind and generous woman, she supported her extensive family and always had time for others, but well umm ..," umm? Since when did Tatsu say umm?  
  
"Please Tatsu, carry on, this is really interesting" Alice begged, she had always had a fascination regarding the older hunters, and this was her chance to get a true account of them  
  
"Elisel was unwell" stated Tatsu evenly "She had a mental illness, causing her to upon occasion be ruthless and cruel." The way that sentence was ended made it clear that this was all the information Tatsu would give on the subject  
  
"What about you Crimson?" asked Alice quickly moving over to him "What was your father like?"  
  
"My father?" Said Crimson, for some reason sounding amused "Well he was a ranger, that was all."  
  
"What do you mean "that was all" he was one of the greatest rangers ever!" exclaimed Alice quite shocked  
  
"He was nothing but a Ranger, never a father, never a husband, everything about him was business he never even left us any money, I don't think he even knew he had a son."  
  
"That's very sad" Alice said, her voice full of sympathy  
  
"I suppose it is" then it was crimsons turn to fall silent  
  
Alice hopped over to Ryzada looking hopeful  
  
"I am a newman, I was born in a lab from a combination of DNA, my father was Drake Sylvan a well reputed hunter, I didn't have a mother, I was officially adopted by Drake at the age of 2 I ran away at the age of 5, since then have lived in several different homes, including those of Tatsu, and currently Crimson" Ryzada stated in a flat tone of voice, obviously her past was not a subject she enjoyed either, what was it with these 3? None of them liked where they came from, strange.  
  
"What about you Alice?" Enquired Tatsu, surprising everybody  
  
"Me? Umm well I'm a newman too, like Ryzada is, umm I was also born in a lab, but I had 2 parents who adopted me, like a lot of newmans I showed some skill with techniques at an early age, umm about a year or so ago I decided that I wanted to help people out, so I trained as a hunter, umm by the time I finished training the exploration of ragol was finished, and now I need meseta for an operation"  
  
"An operation? As in a medical procedure? What's wrong Alice?" asked Tatsu seemingly concerned for the girl  
  
"I need to have my genetic information altered slightly, because I'm only expected to live for another year or two"  
  
"WHAT!?!" yelled Tatsu and Crimson stopping in their tracks, Ryzada, oddly didn't seem all too surprised  
  
"I'm a newman" stated Alice as if that explained everything, seeing the looks of confusion on Tatsu's and Crimson's faces she continued "Newmans were created by scientists, the first was made a few hundred years ago. Newmans are the result of splicing genetic data from humans with that of animals Of course several different types of newman resulted, because of the different types of animals that could be used, and obviously some animals have shorter life spans than humans do. So some newmans have stunted life cycles, sorry this must seem like an awful lot of science babble"  
  
"Not at all Alice" said Crimson "This is very interesting, I don't know why I didn't hear about it earlier" He shot a glance at Ryzada who was being unusually quiet  
  
"Umm if you say so" said Alice "Is there anything else you would like to know?"  
  
Tatsu raised his hand, like a child in school "I'd like to know why new newmans are being made, I thought they just procreated normally"  
  
"Scientists discovered DNA from old Coral in the wreckage of pioneer 1" said Ryzada softly, suprising the group with her break from her silence "being men of great genius, they were also men of great curiosity. They couldn't resist generating new types of newman in order to study the effects of these previously extinct strains of DNA, so they tampered with unborn children and man was yet again twisted at the whim of science, we newmans are the results of their tampering" She laughed bitterly "would have been nice to have had some say in the matter"  
  
Alice nodded in agreement "It really wasn't fair, now we are paying for it, the new newmans really don't live for very long at all, its scary"  
  
"If you don't mind me asking Alice, how old are you?" Crimson inquired  
  
"I'm 4 standard years old" replied Alice  
  
"And your predicted death is only a year away! That's terrible, we have to get you the money for that operation, you can't live a life in only 5 years, we have to get you more time" Tatsu was strangely emotional as he said this  
  
"Ryzada, why didn't you tell me?" Crimson said quietly "Why didn't you tell me what it meant to be a newman, how long do you have?"  
  
Ryzada unexpectedly began to cry, leaning into Crimsons shoulder sobbing quietly, Crimson wrapped an arm round her heaving shoulders "It's okay Ryz, just tell me, you heard Alice, we can get it fixed"  
  
Ryzada looked up at Crimsons face, her cheeks tear stained and her eyes red "I have 6 months Crimson, I'm 8 years old and I'm going to die in 6 months" she managed to gasp between sobs, when she was done speaking she buried her face back in Crimsons shoulder  
  
"Wow Crimson, your girlfriend is 8 years old, I never knew you were like that" Said Tatsu after a while, the only reason why Crimson didn't hit him for saying that was that Ryzada was still quite firmly attached to his arm, Instead he decided to be nasty, not something he did often.  
  
"Well Tatsu, it also turns out that the girl you described as "cute smart and funny" oh and lets not forget "sigh perfect for me" is 4!"  
  
"YOU BASTARD, WHAT DID YOU SAY THAT FOR!" Tatsu yelled  
  
"For being stupid, I would have thought you could be more supportive"  
  
"You think I'm cute? And smart? And funny?" said Alice  
  
Tatsu looked downwards clearly embarrassed "and perfect, yes that's what I think"  
  
Alice slapped him sharply across the face, earning an brief angry glare from Tatsu "Well I think you're a STUPID SMUG INSENSITIVE BASTARD" she yelled and stormed off  
  
Tatsu blinked twice before coming to his senses, he hadn't been expecting that from sweet little Alice, he turned to Ryzada "I'm sorry Ryz" he said, using Crimsons nickname for her "I didn't mean it, Its just such a shock, hearing news like that from a friend"  
  
Ryzada finally let go of Crimson, brushing away her tears with the sleeve of her top "It's okay Tatsu, I forgive you" then she smiled "Alice really hit you hard"  
  
Tatsu touched his cheek, knowing from the stinging sensation that a red handprint would be emblazoned across his face for a while, it would be a while before his relationship with Alice was healed, how could he have been so stupid? Making a racist joke like that, when Alice and Ryzada finally talked about who they really were, what did he do? Make fun of them, clever Tatsu, really clever.  
  
"where did Alice go anyway?" asked Crimson, still reeling from Ryzada's sudden display of emotion  
  
A scream was heard a little way in the distance, a high pitched scream of terror,  
  
Tatsu immediately began running, Alice was in trouble, and it was all his fault, he would never forgive himself if she got hurt, not for as long as he lived 


	5. Consider us Even

Gawd this re-submitting is hard work! grrr when i get my hands on the person who got my fic removed... I mean C'mon, 26 chapters! what kinda bastard would get that deleted? especially when i might not even have had a back up!  
  
Crimson pushed yet another branch out of his way as he followed Tatsu's mad dash through the trees, Ryzada was also struggling to keep up, suddenly the trees ended and in the middle of a clearing two girls stood encircled by boomas, one of them was Alice, the other, unidentified. Alice spotted the 3 hunters as they stood at the tree-line and yelled over to them  
  
"Could you help us please? We're having a little trouble." Alice nimbly dodged an incoming booma claw and set her attacker howling with a hasty foie technique. The other girl, a force judging by her clothes, was holding her own, wielding a hammer in a masterful blend of attack and defense, blocking a powerful swing from the booma directly in front of her, she then swept low knocking the creature to the ground, then bringing her weapon overhead, crushed its skull with a mighty blow, it was at this point that she dropped her weapon, the hammer skittering across the floor, the girl dropped to her hands and knees, crawling after it, as she grasped the handle she looked up, almost her entire view taken up by the ham like fist of a gobooma, she cowered in fear.  
  
A brief flash of blue later and the fist was replaced by a bloody stump, some expert shooting from Crimson saving her life, within a moment Crimson had switched to a saber and leapt into combat , Tatsu and Ryzada providing their support, the boomas did not last long against the 5 hunters combined strength, Crimson serving quick death to any seeking to harm his friends and Tatsu fighting with berserker strength in Alice's defense, as the last booma fell to the hum of Tatsu's brand, 3 hunters burst through the trees on the other side of the clearing, one of them Crimson recognized as Raven, but he could not put a name to the other two. The girl they had saved got to her feet as Raven walked up to meet her  
  
"Mei Lung, we told you to stay with the group" Ravens tone was brimming with displeasure  
  
"I know" the girl called Mei Lung said, her voice slightly sing song and definitely childish "But I was having so much fun exploring, and there was this butterfly, and its wings were so pretty, even more pretty than that flower I found, do you remember the flower? You must do because I gave it to you"  
  
"Yes I remember, now please shut up, you're giving me a headache" Raven said with a grimace, he then turned to Crimson "Well look who it is, I guess you aren't as much of a coward as I thought"  
  
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" asked Crimson "Because if it was, a simple thank you would have been better"  
  
"Thank you" Raven said, forcing the words out, It was obviously not a phrase he used often "You may consider us even"  
  
"That's more like it" said Crimson smiling at this minor victory "Now what are you doing in this forest anyway?"  
  
"Looking for someone" Raven answered shortly, obviously not wishing to discuss it further  
  
"C'mon Raven" called one of the Hunters still at the edge of the clearing "We have to get going, our client won't pay us if we are late"  
  
"Mery, shut up before you tell them everything we are doing"  
  
"I was just saying, its going to take long enough getting the-" The android identified as Mery didn't finish this sentence, as he was interrupted by a vicious swing from the hunter next to him.  
  
"I don't know why we even took that android with us, he's worse than Mei" Raven muttered under his breath  
  
"What did you say?" Tatsu, intruding on the conversation  
  
"Nothing that you would find to be of importance" Raven dismissed Tatsu completely, instead talking to Crimson "We must go now Crimson, maybe we will meet again? Magus, pick up Mery's head, we will repair him along the way, Mei Lung, leave that butterfly alone, team Valiant is moving out"  
  
Mei Lung looked back regretfully "But this one is really really pretty, its purple and yellow and green, I wish I had a dress that looked like it, don't you think I would look nice in that?"  
  
Raven sighed, what was it with him and rejects? He seemed to be surrounded by them recently. He led his team out of the clearing leaving Crimson and his posse to discuss things  
  
"Are you alright Alice? You aren't hurt at all are you?" Tatsu was genuinely concerned  
  
"I'm fine okay? You guys got here just in time" Alice seemed to have in some measure, forgiven Tatsu for his earlier behavior  
  
Ryzada was looking around, looking troubled "Guys? There is something wrong with this clearing"  
  
Crimson looked surprised "It seems normal to me, the kind of place you might go on a picnic, except for the horrible monsters lurking everywhere "That's just it" Ryzada didn't seem any less troubled  
  
"This clearing isn't natural, something must have removed the trees, roots and everything"  
  
"The boomas?" Crimson suggested "They live underground, so maybe this was some sort of new communal area they decided upon?"  
  
"but they shouldn't do that, they aren't smart enough, last time we checked boomas were practically mindless"  
  
Alice was behaving strangely, glancing around apprehensively, somehow her ears were perked up and she looked scared "we're in trouble, we should have moved" she said laughing nervously  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Tatsu, "We aren't in any trouble, the boomas are dead" he still looked around checking for any signs of danger "we're all clear" he announced  
  
With that a mighty crash was heard and the trees parted, a huge shape leapt into the sky and landed with a thunderous crash  
  
"HILDEBEAR!" Yelled Crimson and Tatsu simultaneously, Ryzada stood silent, but she was shaking, her arms were limp at her sides and her daggers had fallen to the floor  
  
"I told you we were in trouble" Alice said quietly  
  
The great beast turned to face Ryzada, as she still stood numb with fear, it opened its mouth and spat a globe of pure fire, which hurtled in her direction.  
  
Crimsons body burned with pain, even through his armour, the natural napalm seared his skin, but at least Ryzada was safe, the beast roared once more, determined to crush the fool who stood between him and his intended victim, the monster drew one fist back to strike, as Crimson prepared himself for the blow. The gigantic fist hammered straight into Madhu as the faithful mag positioned itself to protect its master, despite his mags protection being added to his defenses the force of the blow still knocked Crimson clean off his feet, propelling him backwards into Ryzada who was only just regaining her senses. The hildebear raised its fist yet again, to deliver a final crushing blow, but was interrupted as a blast of energy glanced off of its upraised arm  
  
"Take that you thrice accursed whoreson" Tatsu yelled spinning his slicer in one hand  
  
The huge creature turned its attention to the new attacker, a poor idea it turned out as it allowed Crimson and Ryzada to regain their footing, Crimson took a running leap at the monster, executing a downwards slash in midair, the blow scorched a furrow into the flesh of the bears back, roaring in pain the animal spun round slamming its entire arm into Crimson in a monstrous clothesline, Crimson once again sailed through the air bouncing twice when he hit the floor, he moved a little, but didn't get back up.  
  
The bear advanced upon its fallen foe, intent upon making the kill this time, as before it was halted by an fierce attack from one of the hunters comrades, Ryzada had gathered her wits and her daggers, in a dangerous move she had jumped up onto the creatures back, stabbing one of her daggers deeply into the meat of the bears shoulder, she was flung to the floor violently as the beast grabbed her with one hand and hurled her as if she were a rag doll, Tatsu gripped the hilt of his brand firmly and made a frontal assault on the wounded animal, he was met with a punishing uppercut from the uninjured hand, and he too was sent sprawling across the floor.  
  
The beast roared its triumph and made ready to finish its victims once and for all, but there was somebody it had forgotten, Alice silent and still through out the fight, stepped calmly up to the beast, leveling her staff at it "Is it cold in here? Or is it just me?" she said with a smile, the line was cliché, but she had always wanted to say it, the hildebear bellowed its defiance of the small girl before it, then its movements halted, Alice's rabarta had frozen it solid, she twirled her staff dexterously before swinging it into the huge ice sculpture that used to be a hildebear. The ice cracked, and then shattered.  
  
Turning her attention to her friends Alice administered monomate to each of them Crimson was the first to speak  
  
"In the name of all things good, why does monomate burn so much!"  
  
"Oh be quiet" Alice chided "no-one else is complaining, and besides the burning means its working"  
  
"Alice?" Tatsu said weakly  
  
"Yes what is it Tatsu?"  
  
"That was really fantastic, you're an A class hunter if I ever saw one"  
  
"Thank you Tatsu" Alice smiled "And for your information, I almost failed boot camp"  
  
The monomate had its desired effect and apart from some minor aches everybody was feeling okay  
  
"Alice?" asked Tatsu again "How did you know that hildebear was coming?"  
  
"Oh that" Alice replied "I just have super sensitive hearing, that's all" she shrugged as if it was nothing  
  
"Why? Is this something to do with the umm, you know, newman thing?" Tatsu was cautious around that subject, having viewed its effects earlier  
  
"mm hmm" Alice nodded in the affirmative "Its in my genes"  
  
"If you don't mind me asking Alice, what is your beastial half?" Ryzada asked curiously  
  
Alice blushed, a light pink tinge coming to her cheeks, strangely Tatsu also colored slightly upon seeing this "Promise you won't laugh?" she asked everyone, not just Ryzada  
  
"We won't laugh" Tatsu promised "We're your friends we wouldn't laugh at you"  
  
"Umm okay" said Alice hesitantly "Umm I'm half rabbit"  
  
Crimson and Ryzada tried very hard not to laugh, but eventually neither could help it, it wasn't just the fact that Alice was part rabbit, the way she had said it really didn't help. Tatsu however was not laughing  
  
"What is so funny you two?" his tone demanding "It's not funny" then he looked at Alice "It's really quite cute" he said half to himself. Alice blushed deeper and Crimson and Ryzada doubled up in gales of laughter, cute? That was definitely not a Tatsu word. After the general hilarity that Crimson and Ryzada was experiencing died down, and Alice returned to normal colour, Tatsu was still not impressed "If you think its funny, why don't you tell us what you are Ryz?" he asked  
  
It was Ryada's turn to blush "No no, I couldn't" she said obviously none too willing  
  
"Please?" begged Alice "I told you what I am" The look on Alice's face was so pleading, so begging, so damn cute that Ryzada couldn't deny her.  
  
"Fine I'll tell you" Ryzada said then took a breath "I'm half cat" she then muttered to herself "Damn puppy dog eyes, every time" It was now Alice and Tatsu who were laughing, and Crimson could not for the life of him see the funny side, Ryzada was a cat, so? It just explained why she liked to curl up on warm spots of furniture. Upon thinking this he couldn't help but chuckle, then joining in with the infectious laughter Ryzada was also giggling, What would Raven think of them as hunters if he saw them like this? The thought simply made Crimson laugh harder. The group was unusually mirthful considering they almost met their maker not 10 minutes before.  
  
After they all stopped laughing, for a second time, Crimson decided to lead his team out of the clearing, he scolded himself on his poor leadership, never stay in one place, that was the golden rule of hunting in the forest, keep moving, all that noise could have attracted a whole pack of wolves, hildebears or god alone knows what, they were going to have to take this a lot more seriously if they didn't want to end their career as pet food for the natives of ragol  
  
The next chapter is going to follow Ravens team around, sorry for any fans of the usual 4, but hey its my story, I can do what I want. 


	6. Always Look on the Bright Side

Well its me again (duh who else would it be?) didn't really feel up to writing in the last couple of days, guess I was just feeling a little off eh? No worries though, as promised this chapter follows Ravens team, since I shoved 3 new characters in in only one chapter I thought it best that we get to know them a little better. Enough Author babble, on with the story.  
  
Raven hacked another branch out of his way, it wasn't actually in his way he just felt the need to hack something. How could Mei do this? She disobeyed orders again and now that other group knew his whole team by name and sight, this was supposed to be a covert mission, go in, grab the goods and go out again and nobody would even notice. Raven stopped slightly the sound of laughter seemed to be carried on the wind. Lucky for him those other hunters weren't too bright, god alone knows what might have happened had they recognized Magus, was that bounty still standing? Or had they given up? Raven stopped again as a face that practically sparkled with idiotic happiness smiled up at him.  
  
"What do you want now Mei?" Raven asked in a tired tone of voice  
  
"Well I found this plant and it didn't look very pretty but I picked it anyway, and do you know what?"  
  
"What" sighed Raven  
  
"It smells really nice!" Mei Lung was practically beaming with happiness "Here smell some"  
  
Raven sniffed the plant out of pure courtesy, it did actually smell quite pleasant.  
  
"That's very nice Mei, why don't you see if you can find more plants that smell nice?" Mei smiled brightly and jogged off, presumably to look for more plants  
  
What was it with that girl? How on ragol did someone so obviously missing the plot make it as a hunter? Still truth be told he preferred her to his other traveling companions, Magus, he was a strange one, more than likely he would stab a small animal, then nurse it back to health, for a contract killer he seemed strangely kind hearted, possibly the most polite assassin Raven had ever met, then there was Mery, androids were supposed to be superior to humans in almost every way weren't they? So why did this one fight like a girl and think like a brick? They would have returned him for production defects but he didn't even HAVE a production number, still he was practically immortal, he had died at least 5 times to date. Raven sighed, why could he never have a normal team? How was he supposed to work with a group of misfits?  
  
"Raven?" This time it was Magus  
  
"What do you want murderer"  
  
"The correct term is assassin, and I haven't killed anyone, at least not on purpose" Magus added the last as an afterthought "But I was just wondering something"  
  
"That being?" Raven was tired of these stupid questions, even Mei's interruptions were more sensible  
  
"We are going to be walking through a known dragon den correct?" said Magus  
  
"Yes we are" replied Raven "Now if that's all"  
  
"Well do you really think the four of us could take down a fully grown dragon?"  
  
Raven stopped, this was the first intelligent question Magus had asked all day "We can do it" he said confidently "After all, the first hunters could fight a dragon one on one and not break a sweat"  
  
"We are not the first hunters, we are a small team of inexperienced hunters who are wandering around on possibly the least friendly rock in the galaxy"  
  
Raven drew his saber "You see this?" he said, holding it mere inches from magus' face, Magus nodded slowly  
  
"Well this says I'm a hunter, and as a hunter I am obliged to finish any job I set out to do, regardless of odds, regardless of danger, I haven't failed a client yet, and I'll be damned if I start today."  
  
Mei popped up between the two hunters "Hey Magus, hey Raven umm Mery told me to tell you guys something, umm but I forgot what it was"  
  
Raven sighed, he had sent Mery ahead on scout duty, and Mei was acting as a go between, upon reflection a bad idea, it was decided early on that Mei was useless for anything except maybe combat.  
  
"Well remember then" he said through grated teeth, Magus was peculiarly silent  
  
"ohhhh I remember now" Mei hopped from one foot to the other "umm umm he said uhhh oh yeah, he can see the dome up ahead!"  
  
Was this good news or bad? The central dome was where the dragons lived, it was also the most heavily infested monsters nest in the whole forest, well it wasn't like they had a choice.  
  
"Did I do good? Was I a good messenger?" Mei looked anxious  
  
"Yes Mei you did your job perfectly" Raven said with a half smile Magus was still silent, and now inspecting his shoes it appeared. As Mei Lung danced round the pair, jumping and skipping, Raven decided it was best to talk to Magus  
  
"Magus, you've been here before, what can we expect?"  
  
"huh? Oh" Magus seemed a bit out of it as usual "well last I saw there was a major colony of boomas a couple of hildebears and a pack of wolves"  
  
"So nothing to worry about then?" Said Raven, gallows humour being his forte  
  
"We could do with some help, I mean really do with it, a full platoon of soldiers perhaps?" Magus had been convinced that this job was suicide right from the beginning.  
  
"Why don't we ask those four from earlier for help? They were nice" said Mei, still skipping around  
  
"No!" said Raven hotly "Team Valiant doesn't need anybodies help" his tone turned a little more gentle "Now go and get Mery please, we're having a meeting" Mei skipped off humming to herself leaving Raven alone with Magus  
  
"Magus I really need to ask you something"  
  
"Sure Raven, go ahead, I may not answer but you can ask"  
  
"Why don't you get over the whole thing with Mei?"  
  
"Excuse me?" asked Magus incredulously "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Please Magus, its obvious and its pathetic, the only reason Mei herself hasn't noticed is because she never notices anything that isn't brightly coloured."  
  
"Honestly Raven I have no idea what you are talking about" Magus protested his innocence  
  
"Every time she comes within a few meters of you, you stop talking and stare at the floor, only an idiot develops a personal relationship with a team mate, any one of us could die today or tomorrow" Ravens words held a twist of bitterness  
  
"Really I never noticed I was like that, I swear" Magus was still on the defensive  
  
"Fine all I'm saying is try to be more proffesional"  
  
"Oh, act like an unfeeling machine you mean?" Magus was starting to get annoyed  
  
Raven nodded "Exactly, feelings get in the way, that's why we're better hunters than that idiot team Crimson runs"  
  
"You know you've called him an idiot an awful lot recently, is there maybe a rivalry between you two?  
  
It was Ravens turn to take the defensive "Me? Rivals with that pathetic excuse for a leader? Don't make me laugh"  
  
"No danger of that happening" muttered Magus, at this point Mei and Mery reappeared  
  
"Found him" Mei announced triumphantly  
  
"You said there was a meeting? We've met, now I need to go back to scouting" Mery turned around to walk away  
  
"Get back here" shouted Raven "Sit down, we are planning what to do next"  
  
"Oh why didn't you say we were having a council?" asked Mery, sitting himself down in a circle with the other three  
  
"Right" said Raven authoritatively "Ahead of us is a heavy nest of monsters, we have no idea how many, but we do know it will be dangerous, we need a plan"  
  
"Okay" said Mei "I have a plan" there was a groan from Raven and Magus, Mery had stopped paying attention and was now playing with his fingers. "The way I see it, we need to have one person designated as a spotter, keeping an eye out for new threats, I suggest that person be me, because I can hit things from a distance, we need 2 people actually fighting the monsters, that should be Raven and Mery, Magus? You should be picking off lone monsters and supporting Raven and Mery, but also using resta to make sure nobody gets badly hurt, umm at least that what I think we should do" Raven and Magus looked at Mei in extreme shock, since when did she even know big words? Let alone be an expert strategist, Mery was not looking shocked, he wasn't paying attention  
  
"Finger goes up, finger goes down, hand goes left, hand goes right, huh? What were you guys talking about again?"  
  
Magus barely restrained himself from throttling the idiot android, before remembering it wouldn't have worked anyway.  
  
"Mei has come up with a tactic that may result in us NOT getting killed, and you weren't listening?" Magus kept his temper just beneath the surface  
  
Mery shrugged "I wouldn't have died anyway, my entire memory is backed up on pioneers data banks, it would be inserted into a blank android"  
  
"So you wouldn't care that the rest of us had all died?"  
  
"Of course not, I haven't saved my data since meeting you, so I would have no memory of you 3 at all, I wouldn't care in the least"  
  
Magus gave up keeping his temper under control and struck Mery round the head with a resounding blow. "Damn android, aren't they supposed to protect human life?"  
  
"We all knew that Mery was defective when we hired him on, just repair him and we'll get going towards the dome" Raven got to his feet and leant against a tree "I guess we'll find out if Mei knows what she is talking about soon enough"  
  
Mei was currently involved in chasing a butterfly "Hey guys it's getting away, I want it" she said jumping after the insect  
  
Magus looked up from his repair work on Mery "We're all doomed" he said cheerfully  
  
Raven continued to lean against his tree, maybe they were all doomed, but that wasn't anything for Raven to worry about, he had never failed a mission yet, so things had to go right on this one  
  
Next chapter kinda messes around with time a little, it occurs at pretty much the same time this one does, try not to get confused, I will do stuff like this from time to time, it all makes sense later 


	7. This is it, We're all Going to Die

Okay back to the standard party, I haven't done anything at all confusing this time, but this is getting towards the end of the dragon chapter, still a character or two I need to put in, E? This is the chapter your brother has been waiting for. Tell me what he thinks  
  
A twig snapped causing Crimson to jump slightly and point his sniper in the direction that the noise came from, it was another false alarm  
  
"Crimson, you're too on edge" Alice reprimanded, "This is a wide path, an ambush is very unlikely"  
  
"I know Alice, but we're coming up on the dome, and you know that place is dangerous"  
  
"I've only heard stories" Alice admitted "But we are prepared for a fight, we've come this far, nothing is going to stop us now"  
  
"Except being ripped to tiny pieces by monsters" Tatsu added gloomily  
  
Ryzada kicked Tatsu sharply in the ankle "Thank you for the morale boost Tatsu, but I think we can do just fine without you predicting our horrible bloody end"  
  
Tatsu hopped around in mock pain while the rest of the party continued their march towards the now closer than ever telepad to the central dome, this was going to be it, the final test of their skills, could they do it? Could they do what no hunter had done for the past year? They would, they had to, nothing could stop them from entering the dome, except maybe the native creatures, beasts such as they do not take intrusion lightly.  
  
The party stopped, they were here, this telepad would take them to a spot just outside the dome, from there all they had to do was fight their way through countless monsters, step on another telepad and capture a live dragon, this promised to be fun.  
  
"Crimson?"  
  
Crimson turned round "Yes Ryzada what is it?"  
  
"I'm scared, there is something, very dangerous near here, something evil"  
  
Crimson smiled reassuringly, why did he still do that? "It's just nerves Ryz, everybody gets scared when they do things like this"  
  
"Not me" said Tatsu bravely, trying to hide the shaking in his hands  
  
"No I really mean it, there is something there, its not good and it doesn't like us" Ryzada was obviously distressed  
  
"We can't quit now" said Alice "We fought through hell to get here and it would be the same on the way back, so either we fight ahead or we fight backwards, I know which I would rather do, now what's your choice?" For all her girlish looks and innocence, Alice was very often the most sensible of the four. Wisdom seemed to be deeply ingrained into forces.  
  
"Well I'm fighting on," said Crimson stepping forwards  
  
"I'll fight too" Ryzada stood next to Crimson  
  
Tatsu was left standing alone "Before we decide, could you please answer me one question Crimson"  
  
"What's that Tatsu?"  
  
"If you die, can I have your boots?" With a grin Tatsu stepped forwards, all four hunters were decided, no matter what was on the other side, they were going to face it together, weapons drawn. Crimson was the last to speak before they activated the telepad "You can have my boots Tatsu, but don't you touch my weapons"  
  
It was eerily silent as the team warped in, they were in fighting stance, but there were no enemies in sight, at least no live ones, large numbers of boomas lay dead, limbs severed and mangled, here and there a mutilated rag rappy was placed amongst the gore, chunks of other monsters littered the area, Alice turned away covering her eyes and Ryzada held tightly to Crimsons arm, Tatsu's back was also turned and the sounds of retching could be heard. Crimson seemed unaffected by the scene, he noticed a lone android standing at the gate.  
  
"MERY" Crimson called out "Where are Raven and the others"  
  
The android turned to face them "They are investigating an interesting article up ahead, I am here on guard in case any monsters arrive"  
  
"What are they investigating?" Crimson was perplexed, the area had been thoroughly explored ages ago  
  
"I am not allowed to say, Raven has instructed me to keep you idiots away from the dome"  
  
Idiots? So much for mutual respect between hunters, Crimsons party advanced to the gate, Tatsu stepping forwards to open it, Mery looked at Tatsu down the barrel of his gun  
  
"I can't let you pass, I will shoot you if I must"  
  
With an idle flick of his wrist Tatsu accurately threw a slicer blade that struck Mery directly in the forehead "The doors open" Tatsu said sounding sick, his face pale. The party walked through.  
  
Raven, Magus and Mei Lung were gathered around one of the most disturbing sights in Crimsons memory, A hildebear, Its ribs open like a cage door was pinned crucifixion style to the wall, the pooled blood was unclotted, this meant it could not have been long ago that the beast was killed  
  
"Raven? Did you do this?" Tatsu asked, his mind numbed  
  
Raven shook his head "And we didn't do any of that out there either"  
  
"You didn't?" Crimson was again confused there were no other hunters in these woods, were there?  
  
Raven shook his head again "We found it like this, this is like nothing I've ever seen before"  
  
Mei climbed to her feet "We were all ready to fight, and we had a big plan and everything, and when we got here, they were all dead, all of them, cut in half and bleeding, arms and legs missing, blood, blood was everywhere" She started to cry  
  
Magus put a reassuring hand on Mei's shoulder but when he talked he was addressing Crimson "Raven is against the idea but I think our teams should work together for a while, If whatever did this is still around, we need to stay together." Raven stayed silent  
  
"No" said Ryzada "Whatever did this, is going away, it's getting more distant"  
  
When Magus didn't speak Raven asked the question "What makes you think that?"  
  
"I don't think, I know," said Ryzada "Its hard to explain, but I can feel this.., thing, its just an evil presence, but its getting fainter"  
  
"Whatever" Raven replied "Seeing as it's safe to go on, team Valiant has a job to be doing" With that he started moving towards the telepad to the domes interior then he stopped "What did you do with our android anyway?"  
  
"Oh, well, he's a little dead right now," said Tatsu guiltily  
  
Magus sighed, "I'll go fix him" he then disappeared out of the gate to retrieve the fallen android, he returned shortly afterwards dragging the mechanoid behind him.  
  
"Why are you going to the dome anyway? What do you want with the dragons?" Alice spoke for the first time in a while  
  
"Who said anything about dragons?" Raven replied honestly confused  
  
"I know you think we are idiots, but the only important thing about the central dome is its dragons" Alice answered

"Down the stairs and turn left, through the door and into the caves, past the minefield and the monsters, I'll be waiting, don't be late" said Mery  
  
"SHUT HIM UP" yelled Raven, with a deft jab of a screwdriver Magus deactivated Merys vocal subroutines, effectively silencing the robot  
  
"Raven, we don't care about your mission, its obviously something shady or you wouldn't be bringing a murderer and a non-registered android with you" Crimson said matter of factly  
  
"It's assassin and I haven't murdered anybody," muttered Magus, but he kept his head down and continued his repairs on Mery. Raven blinked, so they had recognized Magus? Oh well no matter  
  
"Well if you don't care then why are you interfering?" asked Raven  
  
"We aren't interfering, we're on our way to fight a dragon, so that we can bring it back for the arena fights" Crimson answered hotly  
  
"Well then I wish you all the best with your suicide, team Valiant is moving out" Raven turned his back on them again and Magus dragged the newly repaired Mery to his feet, as they began walking they noticed that Mei Lung hadn't moved at all,  
  
"Come on Mei, I said we're moving out" Raven said impatiently  
  
Mei shook her head "Crimson saved me when I was being attacked, so I'm going to help him fight this dragon"  
  
"Mei Lung!" shouted Raven "I order you to come with the team"  
  
Mei shook her head again more emphatically this time her hair falling in front of her eyes, she brushed it back into place with her hand "He saved my life Raven, I owe him my support"  
  
Raven looked at the ground defeated, Mei wasn't going to change her mind "Fine Mei, but if you don't catch up with us before the mission ends, you won't be getting your cut of the reward"  
  
"I don't care," said Mei, with that, all 8 hunters stepped on the telepad to the inside of the dome  
  
Raven Magus and Mery broke into a run as soon as they entered the vast cavern, hurrying down a staircase before the beasts that resided in the dome noticed their presence. The remaining 5 readied themselves for a fight. They stood alert for a minute, but there was nothing there. Tatsu stepped forwards  
  
"COME ON! FIGHT US YOU BASTARD DRAGON!" He yelled his challenge into the empty air "WE DIDN'T COME ALL THIS WAY FOR NOTHING! FIGHT US!" Tatsu's cry echoed through out the cavern.  
  
"Looks like there is nobody home" said Ryzada quietly just then a thousand sets of eyes snapped open in the darkness, each one red and menacing  
  
"Well done Tatsu" said Crimson readying his sniper "Looks like you woke them up" He squeezed the trigger and one set of eyes was extinguished, the unknown beast falling with a roar, this seemed to signal a charge amongst the creatures as they advanced on the doomed party, Crimson took 3 more down with expert sharp shooting, but it was 3 of a sea of monsters that was about to hit them like a tidal wave, Tatsu was also firing wildly into the dark, striking a few targets, the first monster crossed the line between light and dark, it was a horrible creature with a pointed face and bladed limbs, its eyes devoid of anything except malice, a blast of photon energy streaked through the air blasting a hole the size of a mans fist through what passed as the creatures face, It fell to the floor defeated but 3 more appeared behind its still falling corpse.  
  
"This is hopeless" cried Tatsu "There's too many of them, and what the hell are the sharks doing up here anyway?"  
  
"I don't know" Replied Alice panicking "I've never even seen these things before" streak after streak of barta piercing the enemy lines.  
  
"They must have found the stairs and moved upwards" Yelled Crimson firing as fast as he could, the monsters were closing fast, the death of their fellows meaning nothing to them, they would fight until the last one bit the dust, out of the corner of her eye Alice noticed that Mei wasn't casting anything  
  
"Mei! Use your Techniques, its our best hope for killing these things" Alice's voice showed signs of fatigue, all this casting took a lot of effort.  
  
"Umm okay" Mei was obviously not used to acting as a force " umm FOIE!" she yelled, mistake, use of a technique only required thought, yelling it?  
  
Mei Lung was propelled backwards as a huge ball of fire erupted from the end of her hammer, she struck the floor hard, but the technique worked, the flaming projectile sped into the darkness illuminating the area with an orange glow, then it struck a group of sharks, exploding on impact showering flaming embers on the monsters igniting them like torches, by the light of these grotesque candles the team could see the true number of their foes. Sharks breeding at an unbelievable rate, untouched by predators or disease, months of this had produced the vast army that the hunters faced, Tatsu for once was right, they were doomed, but as they had all agreed earlier that same day, they would keep fighting onwards.  
  
The sharks had closed to within 10 feet, almost within striking distance, thank god for their slow gait, swifter creatures would have torn the party to shreds within moments, Crimson fired two more shots into the enemy lines, then with a mental command to Madhu he switched to his saber, if he was to die this day, he would make the bastards bleed first, Tatsu and Ryzada also switched to close combat weapons, Tatsu his brand and Ryzada her daggers, Alice and Mei gripped their staffs tightly, they too were ready to participate in the melee, as one four of the five ran forwards, Alice stayed back, ready to support with techniques, quickly swallowing a difluid she was ready to go.  
  
Crimson lost awareness of his comrades, his every brain cell focused on the enemies before him, he lost himself to the red mist, instincts taking over when conscious thought would have failed him, every swing of his weapon was planned, every movement calculated, all towards the end of keeping him alive, then pain ripped through his body, a bladed forelimb had sliced across the back of his exposed neck, almost instantly a green aura surrounded him healing the wound, Crimson smiled and stabbed backwards dispatching the enemy behind him, during this moment of lucid thought Crimson drew a hand gun, firing as he slashed through the un-ending sea of monsters before him, he could no longer see his friends, his attack had swept him away from them, but he hoped against hope that they were okay.  
  
Tatsu struggled with his opponent, his brand was caught by the handle, knowing that standing still would cost him his life Tatsu ducked beneath the limb swung at him, stepping forwards he summoned another brand to his right hand, twisting around he pulled both blades across severing the sharks head, in a blur of motion and aided by his dual weapon style Tatsu sliced around him, creating a ring of corpses, but this safety was only temporary as more sharks took the place of their fallen allies, Tatsu continued to fight, ignoring the aching in his arms he swung again and again, taking down enemies through the advantage of reach, but he was alone, he may as well have been standing against the hordes without his friends, and then it happened, a shark progressed past his deadly blades it was in too close, this was it, then a flash of lightning lit the area and the shark collapsed to its knees, thank god somebody was still watching over him.  
  
Mei and Ryzada had managed to stay together, each supporting the other, Ryzada's cat like grace and lethal weapons dispatching any foe that made it past the beautiful but deadly twirling hammer of Mei lung, the two worked in perfect tandem, until the inevitable happened, Mei once again dropped her weapon, losing amongst the bodies of fallen opponents, Mei panicked and used the last option available to her, spinning like a ballerina she extended her arms, palms out flat she began chanting to herself quietly  
  
"foie, foie, foie, foie, foie, foie, foie, zonde zonde zonde zonde gifoie rafoie rabarta MEGID!" shouting the last at the top of her lungs Mei fell unconscious, every shark within a wide radius lay dead, Crimson and Tatsu blinked as their foes collapsed, hurrying over to where Ryzada stood the hunters gathered, Alice included.

"What the hell was that?" Crimson yelled

"I don't know" Alice replied "But I had no idea Mei was that powerful"

"Umm delightful though this conversation is, I don't think we're safe just yet" Tatsu interupted

There were still plenty of sharks, but the small group had some thinking time, healing wounds and restoring their stamina, the hunters prepared themselves for the remaining sharks, a full quarter of them lay slain, leaving only a thousand or so alive, it was hopeless as they all knew from the start, they should have fled down the stairs before the way was blocked, but now it was too late, as the relentless lines of malicious enemies bore down upon them the hunters faced death with brave faces, and then they were saved by a miracle. There was a sound much like that of a muffled explosion and a figure shrouded in celestial light appeared in the center of the cavern, his long robes flowing the figure turned to the party and spoke  
  
"Don't panic" with that the mysterious person turned his attention to the sharks, just as they turned their attention to him, the figure raised a hand and drew from his sleeve what appeared to be a deck of cards, the sharks encircled him and for a moment it seemed that he would be immediately overwhelmed by adversaries, then he was a blur of motion his hands deftly launching cards, each shark that was struck went down with a piteous cry, once a sizable area had been cleared the force threw both hands up to the skies and brought them down, there was a crash of thunder and lightning rent the air itself electrocuting any enemy foolish enough to be close, bringing his arms towards his chest then extending them again the man erupted in a fiery conflagration, globes of flame spiraling outwards from his body, passing directly through the surrounding sharks, the luckless creatures exploding as their vital juices achieved boiling point, one last group of sharks remained in a far corner of the room, a frown marred the mans brow as he concentrated on them, the distant sharks shone with a brilliant radiance that hurt the eyes to behold, as the illumination dimmed, there was no sign of the sharks left, the awesome energies involved had disintegrated the beasts. The light surrounding the mysterious and obviously powerful stranger vanished and he walked towards them, Tatsu was the first to break out of the dumbstruck coma  
  
"I understand" he said his voice full of awe "You're an angel of god sent to save us" the man expressed extreme amusement at the idea  
  
"Not quite Tatsu, close maybe but I'm no angel"  
  
"Matherson" said Ryzada quietly "Wolf Matherson"  
  
"You're quite right Ryzada, I am indeed Wolf Matherson"  
  
"Why did you save us?" asked Ryzada "I thought you decided it was best if you no longer interfered with the world?"  
  
"I did" agreed Matherson "But I'm not about to let my nephew and niece die in a place like this am I?"  
  
Sudden comprehension struck Tatsu "You? You're uncle Matherson?"  
  
Matherson winced at the honorific, "Please just Matherson, I had nothing to do with your Aunt" "But why are you really here?" asked Ryzada "I don't believe you broke your vow of separatism just for us"  
  
This time Matherson openly laughed "You always were a sharp one Ryzada, the reason I'm here is her" he indicated the sleeping form of Mei Lung "I don't know if you noticed or not, but that much power in a force is not normal"  
  
"But uncle Matherson, you just proved that you are at least ten times more powerful than her" Tatsu objected  
  
"Did I ever say I was normal?" the force smiled enigmatically "And stop calling me uncle"  
  
"Yes uncle Matherson"  
  
Matherson ignored this and walked over to where Mei lay prone, he passed his hands over her face and muttered a few words that were just below audible levels, even to Alice's sensitive ears.  
  
"She'll be alright" Matherson said "But you watch over her, I don't know if she will ever be the same again"  
  
"What do you mean Matherson?" asked Crimson  
  
"All those techniques took more mental strength that she actually had, a weaker mind would have broken under the strain, hers I think, just bent a little" With these words Matherson was once again illuminated and he began to float  
  
"Wait uncle Matherson" Cried Tatsu, "Don't you have any advice, any words of wisdom?"  
  
"Yes" called Matherson's rising silhouette "Duck" with the same muffled bang that he arrived with Wolf Matherson disappeared.  
  
"Duck?" said Tatsu annoyed, "Years spent in solitude contemplating the mysteries of life and his best advice is duck? What a" Tatsu's words were cut short as a large rock impacted upon the back of his head and the rest of his body was showered with gravel, part of the caverns wall had exploded, and standing in the middle of the newly made entrance was a fearsome beast much steeped in myth and legend, they beheld a dragon in all its reptilian glory. Tatsu climbed to his feet muttering under his breath  
  
"Duck, goddamn duck."  
  
The dragon roared and the very earth trembled. The hunters readied weapons once more, this was fast becoming a very long day  
  
AN: and a long chapter! More than 3500 words in this one, umm sorry about that folks, but chapters will be about this long in future too, well maybe a little shorter, if you're reading this whole fic in one sitting, then congrats you are one hell of a dedicated reader, the next chapter ends the dragon chapter of my fic, which means the real plot can begin!


	8. All's Well That Doesn't Get You Killed

The dragon charged forwards, its footsteps were as thunder on a silent night, a bolt of bright blue energy flew across the dome striking the creature square in the forehead, the dragon ceased its head on charge, opting to stand still, it could see its antagonist, the creator of the bolts, there was more than one, five in fact.  
  
As the dragon contemplated its enemies energy was hurled at it in a steady stream, the bright blue of sniper fire issuing forth from Crimsons weapon the light green of Tatsu's slicer blades and the darker color of handgun fire from the other three. The hail of energy fire did little to the dragon's tough hide, except maybe enrage the beast. It drew its head back and then thrust it forwards belching forth a cascade of liquid fire that caused the air to sizzle. The hunters scattered in all directions narrowly avoiding the napalm spray. The dragon extended its magnificent wings and took to the air, scorching the earth with its fearsome breath. It landed and regarded its closest foe, a tall human dressed in black and red.  
  
Crimson was no further than 20 feet away from the dragon, closer than he would have liked to be, he moved backwards still firing ineffectually at the creatures head. It roared with rage at the attack, spinning full circle and lashing its tail at its assailant. Crimson ducked the attack and resumed firing, hoping that he could distract the monstrous animal for long enough that his friends might do something. Tatsu was closing in on the beast from the side, but was spotted as a result of the dragons advanced peripheral vision, a downbeat of gigantic leathery wings later and Tatsu was taken off his feet by a wall of air, instinctively he rolled to his left instead of climbing directly to his feet, a lucky move as a huge tail slammed into the place Tatsu had just vacated.  
  
The dragon returned its focus to Crimson who had been attempting to maneuver himself into the dragons' blind spot near its feet. The beast leveled its wicked tail aiming it at Crimson over its shoulder, surprising the helpless hunter, the tail sprouted barbed spines. Not knowing the true extend of his peril Crimson stood his ground awaiting the swing, there was none. A ripple pulsed through the dragons tail as the muscles contracted, just as it reached the end of the appendage Crimson realized what was about to happen and dived out of the way, the projectile spines embedded themselves firmly into the ground missing Crimson by scant inches. Crimson smiled to himself, a complete surprise and yet he had anticipated it, damn he was good. At that moment the spines detonated, the shrapnel tearing through Crimsons armour, and his flesh.  
  
Alice was on the job as usual and healed the injuries the moment they occurred, but she was worried, none of the stories she had heard or any of the hunters she'd talked to had ever mentioned dragons having explosive tail spikes, there was too much about this thing that she didn't know and the thought of being in a battle that she was entirely unprepared for scared her, but still she fought. Spinning her staff Alice executed a zonde technique, which diffused harmlessly along the dragons hide, did nothing affect it? The massive head swung to face her, the dragons vast maw open, ready to inflict flaming death upon the adolescent girl who dared threaten the king of beasts. Alice was scared, terrified if truth be told, but she did not show it, she had to be strong, she launched a rabarta attack at the dragons face, not expecting any results. But there definitely was a result, the dragon aborted its attack and reared backwards, roaring in pain, a shard of ice was lodged in the creature's eye, damaging its vision and flooding its primitive cerebrum with messages of pain. In a wingbeat the beast took to the air once more, gliding high above the cause of its wound, this was an error that the creature would soon regret, as a blue bolt struck against its soft underbelly. With another roar the dragon circled round to face the origin of this most recent attack, the dragon caught another blast, this one striking harmlessly against its shoulder. It flew low, passing just over the hunters heads, swiping at Crimson with its talons, as the dragon came around once more for another attack it was struck by two more blasts of energy, Crimsons sniper planting a shot inside the beasts nostril, and Tatsu's slicer ripping a small hole in its left wing. Between the pain and the imbalance caused by the puncture, the dragon was forced to land before it veered into a wall.  
  
Ryzada bounced upwards slightly as a consequence of the vibrations the dragons' ungainly landing caused. She stumbled a little in her run towards the wing but kept going, she had noticed the alteration in the dragons flight when Tatsu made the hole, she had also learned from his mistake and was approaching from behind, with its damaged eye, the dragon would not see her. Crimson however did see Ryzada dashing over the dirt and did his utmost to keep the dragons attention focused on him. A risky maneuver it turned out as Crimson scrambled backwards, in a most undignified manner, avoiding the sharp teeth that threatened to devour him.  
  
Ryzada reached the wing and took out a saber, hurling in an overarm fashion she watched the blade tumble through the air towards the thin membrane that made up the dragons wing, striking as Ryzada hoped it would the blade tore a long line through the leathery skin, the dragon was effectively grounded, the dragon once more roaring at the stinging of these annoying insects spun sharply, catching Ryzada off guard, its tail whipping round, catching Ryzada across the chest as her inhuman reflexes allowed her to turn in time to avoid having her spinal column shattered, instead of being propelled across the room Ryzada clung tightly to the limb, swinging her legs on top she straddled it, hanging on for dear life.  
  
The dragon slammed its tail into the floor in an attempt to dislodge its assailant but it failed, growing more and more agitated the dragon belched forth another jet of fire, Crimson moved rapidly to avoid being burned and Alice cast barta, the ice canceling the flames, Tatsu was not quite fast enough and he screamed as his arm was charred by the blazing fluid. Ryzada could here the pained cries of her comrade, but could not go to his aid, Alice would see to his wounds, she was sure of that. But Ryzada had something else in mind, she drew her daggers and stabbed them into the dragons flesh, using the weapons as a form of ice-picks and her legs to steady her grip Ryzada began to climb.  
  
Alice cast resta on Tatsu, trying to heal his burned limb, but resta cannot restore flesh that is no longer there, and so while the bleeding stopped, Tatsu's left arm was still blackened and useless.  
  
"My left arm" he cried "You BASTARD! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE ONE!" Tatsu could feel his muscles fill with strength as the energy of his Mag surged through him "When I'm done with you, you'll fear me as a god! FEEL MY WRATH AND FEAR MY RIGHTEOUS FURY!" Tatsu roared rising from the floor.  
  
Alice blinked as Tatsu struggled to his feet, his arm dangling uselessly at his side, he slashed the air with his brand and everything seemed to darken as energy was pulled to his body, there was a blast of heat and above Tatsu's head appeared a stag, energy coursing along its body it glowed with a strange light, then it charged, gathering speed it lowered its head and struck the dragon, their skulls colliding in a gargantuan headbutt. The stag disappeared leaving behind no trace of its existence, except a deep cut that scored the dragons head, biting into the bone.  
  
The dragon stumbled backwards, stunned by the impact, the same impact almost shook Ryzada from her position, now most of the way up the dragons back, not too far from the base of its neck. Hanging on by a single dagger Ryzada refused to release her tenacious grip, summoning up her strength she pulled herself back up and resumed her climb, she had reached the dragons neck when it had recovered sufficiently to leap up and once more take flight, the large tear in its wing made controlled flight nearly impossible. Instead the dragon circled around the group of hunters still on the ground, launching its fiery projectiles every now and then, and ignoring the photon energy that the hunters sent in return, dragons were the lords and masters of the air, in flight they were invincible. A fact that Ryzada dearly wished to change, riding the dragons back while it gained height, and while she gained confidence Ryzada began once more to climb, high above the ground, on the neck of a VERY angry dragon, Ryzada Ermintine was scared, so scared that she could hardly continue, but she did, she had to, everyone was counting on her. She was nearly there, the dragon was violently shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge this most persistent of foes, Ryzada maintained an iron grip. Finally she made it, despite the dragons wild attempts to remove her, Ryzada sat the point where skull met spine, holding a dagger in her left hand Ryzada hacked away until a small patch was no longer covered by scales, she could feel the dragon vocalizing its objections, roars so deep that they caused the walls to shudder. But Ryzada was undaunted, drawing a saber she thrust it deep into the unprotected space, the beasts nervous system and its brain were separated and it lost all movement.  
  
It wasn't until they began to fall that Ryzada realized her mistake, getting to her feet she began to run towards the other end of the dragon, a normal person would have fallen, but Ryzada's inhuman balance saved her, she made it to the tail just as the dragons head hit the floor, grabbing hold using her hands Ryzada swung underneath the tail, the collision with the floor sending waves of motion through the dragons body, the tail flicked upwards, and as a result of her chosen grip, Ryzada was sent spinning round and around, but she did not let go, as that would result in being launched high, and coming down hard. The tail came back down and Ryzada neatly slid off the end, she fell maybe 6 meters in all, and landed on both feet.  
  
Her comrades rushed to meet her Tatsu was grinning broadly "That was amazing Ryz, acrobatics worthy of the first hunters!" he enthused  
  
Ryzada smiled in return "And you Tatsu? A photon blast? That will be a tale told round every tavern on pioneer"  
  
Crimson however was furious "YOU KILLED IT!" he yelled "WE SPEND ALL THIS TIME AND EFFORT LOOKING FOR ONE AND YOU KILLED IT!"  
  
Ryzada was unfazed by the high decibel berating "It's not dead Crimson, It's just paralyzed, a good resta technique will knit the tissue back together and it will be fine, there was no lasting damage done"  
  
"At least not to the dragon" Tatsu looked remorsefully at his useless arm  
  
"I'm sorry Tatsu" Alice mumbled "I really wish there was something I could do"  
  
"Well there isn't Alice" Tatsu said politely "So there is no use in worrying about it" The Dragon blinked one huge eye "Do you not think we should do something about getting that creature out of here?" he said obviously still nervous about the dragon continuing to be alive. Crimson pulled a communicator out of his belt, it wasn't standard equipment, but it was a gadget, the only thing Crimson loved more than money was gadgets. He pressed a few keys "Hello?" he said a little too loudly "This is Crimson, I'm reporting a success on our mission, the dragon has been immobilized send somebody down to get it please" he put the comm. Device away and turned to his friends "you can bet that the receptionist is pretty surprised" he said cheerfully  
  
"My head really hurts and everything is really bright, the colors are so pretty and shiny, but they make me dizzy" It was Mei, in the excitement of the battle they had forgotten about her  
  
"Mei?" asked Crimson "Are you okay?"  
  
Mei smiled brightly and laughed, a childish and musical sound "I'm fine thank you Mr Crimson, but I think I might have been hit in the head, because like I said it hurts and I'm dizzy and I can't remember what I was supposed to be doing, do you remember Mr Crimson? Because I think it was really really important." It may have been Crimsons imagination, but Mei certainly sounded less mentally fit than before, if that was at all possible.  
  
"You were supposed to catch up with Raven and the others before they finished their job" Tatsu reminded her  
  
"OH YEAH!" exclaimed Mei grinning "Thanks Mr Tatsu sir" And with that she ran off, then she corrected her course and ran in the right direction, falling down the stairs as she reached them  
  
Crimson shook his head "There is something very seriously wrong with that girl" he said with a tone of slight amusement  
  
Just then a man in a white coat teleported in and began busily setting up beacons around the motionless form of the dragon  
  
"Excuse me?" asked Alice inquisitive as ever "But what are you doing?"  
  
"Vhat am I doink?" the white coated stranger parroted "I'm settink up zee beacons so zat zee teleportz kan pick up zee dragon, zats vhat I am doink" The man had an accent unlike any that Alice had ever heard before. But she recognized it  
  
"Doctor Ermintine is it?" more of a statement than a question "Would you please drop the accent?"  
  
"Oh, you know me?" the scientist said, "Who would you be?" all traces of the accent had disappeared  
  
"I'm Alice Arke, or as you probably know me, sample 4552"  
  
"Ah sample 4552, yes I remember, err you were the one requesting the operation yes?"  
  
"Yes and please call me Alice"  
  
"Okay if you insist, but I think sample 4552 has a nice ring to it, better than your mothers name at least" Doctor Ermintine said jokingly "Flopsy wasn't it?"  
  
Alice blushed a furious shade of red "Yes, but could you please keep your mind on business?"  
  
"Business? You have the money for the operation then?" The Doctor pulled a control pad from his coat and jabbed a few buttons.  
  
"Well yes" Alice said uncertain, "But a friend of mine also wants to undergo the same operation"  
  
"Who is this friend?" asked Doctor Ermintine  
  
Ryzada stepped forwards "I believe you know me as sample 6371, but my name is Ryzada, it's been a long time Asrith"  
  
Asrith Ermintine blinked appearing to concentrate "Oh it's you! The one created from my cat?"  
  
Ryzada also blushed slightly with embarrassment "Yes that's me"  
  
Asrith looked a little sad "Gizmo died last year you know"  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that, but please, about the operation?" Ryzada said growing impatient  
  
"Yes, Yes it's not a problem at all, you two do have six thousand meseta between you don't you? And what did you do to this dragon, we'll need to revive it when it is properly contained"  
  
Six thousand?!? Crimson was not going to be happy at the sum. Ryzada turned to Alice and whispered, "How much have you saved anyway?"  
  
"Two thousand" Alice whispered back "The thousand from this job was going to cover the rest"  
  
Ryzada turned to Crimson and Tatsu who were chatting idly  
  
"Crimson? Tatsu? I need to ask a favor, a big one, I need the money from this job, all of it, its for the operation" Crimson and Tatsu both nodded and readily agreed that Ryzada could have the money once they received it, Crimson feeling slightly depressed about not being able to go on a manic spending spree.  
  
Ryzada returned to Doctor Asrith and nodded in the affirmative "We have the money"  
  
"Excellent" Asrith beamed at them "You can stop by the lab later, the operation only takes a minute or two, and you can see my new cat, Gizmo mkII"  
  
With that he took his control pad back out and punched some more buttons on it. In a flash both he and the dragon were gone, leaving only a popping sound as the air rushed into the vacuum created by their sudden disappearance.  
  
Crimson gathered the team round for his "end of the mission" talk. He cleared his throat.  
  
"Congratulations everyone, we can all be proud of ourselves, few hunters have ever accomplished what we have, I believe we have secured our places in history, or at least as a rumor that will circulate round the taverns" he said the last with a smile.  
  
Alice stood up and began to speak "I can't thank you all enough for helping me, I thought for sure that I would never raise the money in time, my rent was due and there were bills to pay, and I would never have made it if it wasn't for you all." Her eyes glistening with tears Alice sat back down trying not to cry. Tatsu placed a friendly hand on her shoulder and handed her a tissue. Smiling reassuringly he looked her in the eyes and said  
  
"You're one of the team Alice, anything you need, we'll help."  
  
Alice looked away a little, uncomfortable with Tatsu looking at her like that, but it was nice to know that she was welcome with these people, now to ask something that she really didn't want to ask.  
  
"Tatsu?" she whispered to him "I don't have anywhere to stay, I don't have enough money to pay for my room or food or anything" She bit her lip "Can I umm, stay with you?" Tatsu was surprised at the proposal, but readily accepted  
  
"One condition" he whispered back "You have to cook"  
  
Alice smiled, cooking she could do, thank god he didn't want her to do the cleaning.  
  
"I got it!" came Crimsons triumphant cry "Damned telepipe, finally got it working" He was clearly pleased with himself "No walking back through the beast infested forest for us, come on everybody, its perfectly safe." Ryzada had her doubts as she stepped into the glowing blue ring. Crimson liked technology, this didn't mean he knew how to use it.  
  
Alice feel very sick as the party emerged on Pioneer 2, having every atom in your body pulled apart, moved at the speed of light and then put back together again was not a pleasant experience. Ryzada was checking that all her limbs were in the right place, and belonged to her. Telepipe accidents were rare, but every now and then one would be faulty and accidents would happen. The blue ring at their feet imploded silently disappearing without trace. That was the problem with single use items. They were impossible to test.  
  
After receiving their reward from the Guild counter, Ryzada and Alice made the visit to the lab. True to his word Asrith performed the operation flawlessly, although the physical exam seemed to be completely unnecessary.  
  
"I don't feel any different at all" commented Ryzada  
  
"Zat is bekauz nothink haz happened yet" Asrith explained, slipping back into his feigned mode of speech  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Ryzada, she was unsure of the exact effects of the operation "And please explain using standard English"  
  
"Why does nobody like my accent? I think it makes me seem so much more like a scientist." Asrith sighed "I mean you just know somebody is a scientist if they talk like that"  
  
"Idiot" Alice muttered under her breath "Well you have the lab coat, so everybody knows anyway, now please explain exactly what you did  
  
"Vell I zimply-" Asrith began  
  
"STANDARD ENGLISH!" Ryzada yelled, the eccentric scientist was trying her patience. How could this man have revolutionized genetic engineering? Well he hadn't really done it right.  
  
"Fine" Asrith grumbled, "When you force 2 kinds of DNA together that aren't really compatible, it's like welding two pieces of metal together. It can be done, but the result is not as strong as the original pieces, only with genetics the flaw becomes greater over time and eventually it breaks apart. So without the operation your DNA would break apart, cells would no longer divide, there would be no new tissue and so you would die about a month or so after total genetic failure, the effect is similar to decomposition, except that the person is still alive as it happens."  
  
"EWWWW!" said Alice and Ryzada in unison  
  
"Oh and you girls will need to take these" He handed them a pair of intravenous chemical injection guns "You'll need injections once a week every week, you can let it slide by a day or 2, but if you miss too many injections your DNA will destabilize and you'll have to come back for another operation."  
  
Alice nodded "Where do we need to have the injection?"  
  
"It's best to inject directly into the blood stream, I suggest your wrists, or the back of your neck, on the other hand if injections scare you, you could be guinea pigs for my latest project, nano medicine! These tiny tiny robots will live inside your bloodstream and periodically release the genetic stabilizer." His face was alight with hope  
  
"Umm no, I don't think we will be doing that" said Alice a little nervously. This guy was pretty weird. Asrith's face fell at her polite refusal, it was so hard to get lab subjects now. A grey streak darted across the room, spiraling up Asriths leg and back it came to rest on his shoulder, eyeing Alice with suspicion  
  
Ryzada jumped "What on ragol is that THING" she yelled pointing at it, the creature, if that was what it was, regarded Ryzada its bionic eyes appearing to squint.  
  
"Oh" said Asrith cheerfully "This is your mother Ryzada."  
  
"But its made of metal!"  
  
"Well yes, like I said before, she died last year. I was really sad and lonely, so I revived her and made it so she would even outlive me."  
  
"What the hell did you do to it?" Ryzada was completely creeped out by the mecha zombie cat thing  
  
"I connected electrodes to the major muscles, used the same cell preserving technique that I just used on you, built a metal framework and ran the cerebral routines through a microprocessor" Asrith seemed hurt by Ryzadas reaction to what he believed was his crowning achievement, victory over death  
  
"Asrith, that's wrong, you can't just do that, you can't go around re- animating corpses" Alice was also distressed by the creation  
  
"You didn't seem to complain when science created you two, abilities superior to others, mental enhancement, I don't recall you saying that you were never supposed to be."  
  
"That's different" Alice said hotly "And by the way, it is wrong to be messing around with genetics and things, you're not a god Asrith. You shouldn't be tampering with evolution and you certainly should not be tampering with things like death."  
"Haha, and what about that is not god-like? I'm not there yet but I'd say i'm pretty close"

"You're delusional, insane and a danger to the natural balance of the universe, and I don't want to talk to you for a second longer" Alice stated evenly.

With that Ryzada and Alice took their injectors and left, they would be sure to take their medicine on time. Anything to avoid returning to that lab  
  
Asrith turned to gizmo and petted her steely head, the cyborg creation purred contentedly, or rather a small speaker generated the sound of purring.  
  
"They just don't understand my genius" he said softly "But they will, oh yes they will, I'll make them understand I will. Then when they are left with no other option they will HAVE to bow to my superior intellect. I vill rule over Zem all!" he threw his head back and laughed  
  
"BWAH HAHAHAHA!" Asrith frowned "No no, that's not right at all, lets try it again. MUAH HAHAHAHA! Dammit, still wrong. Oh forget it, I'll work on the laugh later" With that the decidedly strange and possibly unbalanced Scientist returned to his work  
  
Alright, this officially ends the dragon chapter of this fic, Next up is the tournament chapter, which promises to be just as long, if not longer. Ah well It'll give me something to do at 3 in the morning. Oh and Matherson is not from the PSO storyline, actually none of the characters are. I figure its best to stay original (except with stolen quotes) Matherson is the character belonging to Eriths' brother. Oh and Erith is my friend who owns Mei lung and Tatsu and a few other characters. Any questions you need answering, just ask away, anything requiring a long explanation please email me. 


	9. The end to a Long Day

Man I update fast! I just realized how long it normally takes to write a fic (Erith is going to write one, its not started yet) maybe I should slow down before new readers decide it's too lengthy to start reading? Something I'll have to think about in the future, till then back to Ravens group for most of this chapter, hopping to Alice at some point.  
  
Raven pulled his saber out from the still twitching body of a pal shark, these damned things were even more numerous than he remembered.  
  
"Why do they call them pal sharks?" Magus mused to himself "They are a lot less friendly than I was led to believe."  
  
Raven didn't even dignify that with a response, it was such a pity that Magus couldn't have his voice switched off, unlike Mery who was still completely mute. He was now trying to communicate with hand gestures.  
  
Walking, Raven got that one. Jaws? No. Shark? They were all dead, idiot machine. Raven made to continue on his way when all of a sudden.  
  
Tchwing  
  
Raven spun round to see a blinking red orb, he instinctively shielded his face with his arms. Nothing happened, the mine was a dud. Well it had been down here for quite a while. Raven shrugged and turned round again.  
  
The blast knocked him off his feet, but otherwise caused little damage except to the hunter's pride. He picked himself up off the floor and dusted off his shoulders, glaring at Magus who was laughing uncontrollably. Mery was making similar, but silent, motions. Damn android, it wasn't like it even had a sense of humor.  
  
"Stop laughing and get moving" Raven snapped irritably  
  
The three jogged through the catacombs with only a few chuckles from Magus. A dull rumbling thud vibrated through the walls around them, sounding similar to a heartbeat. It sounded like their "friends" had met that dragon they were looking for, a big one too from the sounds of its footsteps. Raven had no feelings about it one way or another, if the five of them died then it would be less competition for work. Magus on the other hand looked troubled.  
  
"Raven" He said, "This isn't right"  
  
"What's not right murderer?" Raven asked, still irritable from earlier.  
  
"We can't let Mei fight that dragon, she's our team mate, we should be helping her" Mery nodded in silent agreement to Magus' appeal "Wrong murderer, she WAS our team mate, she isn't anymore, and you're either with us or against us, we don't owe her any support." Raven corrected harshly "Now shut up and come this way, we can't turn back now, the door is locked."  
  
"And besides, there was a legion of sharks up there" Said Mery  
  
"How do you know that?" Asked Magus "More to the point, how can you talk?"  
  
"I know because I have infra-red vision built in to my optic systems, and I can talk because a small speaker in my throat vibrates at the correct alternating frequencies to simulate human speech"  
  
"I know that you moron" Magus was quickly becoming aggravated with Merys stupidity "I mean how is it that your vocal subroutines are back online when I haven't replaced and re-programmed the vocal memory units?"  
  
"I re-wrote them myself and stored them on an undamaged memory unit" Mery stated simply  
  
"But machines aren't supposed to-" Magus thought for a second "Never mind" He gave up trying to understand Mery a few minutes after meeting him, Magus thought he had seen every Android type that existed, but Mery didn't match up to any of them. He was most likely a rejected unit from a development project.  
  
Tchwing  
  
The mine knocked magus flat on his backside, he jumped to his feet and looked around angrily. Raven was smirking and Merys expression was unreadable as always.  
  
"You sonofa I-Mac! Why didn't you warn me?" Magus raged at Mery  
  
"You seemed to find it amusing before, so I thought I would allow you to experience it for yourself" Mery said flatly  
  
Magus' fist connected solidly with the side of Merys head causing the android to fall inactive once more.  
  
"I wish you wouldn't do that," said Raven still smirking to himself "He is the only one of us with any clue where we are going you know"  
  
"Shut up" grumbled Magus "I'll have him repaired soon enough" He pulled out his tool kit and flipped open the panel of Mery's face revealing the blinking lights and intricate wiring that made up the artificial brain.  
  
Raven leaned against a wall contemplating the future. He didn't really want to be working on the shady side of things, it was just that it paid better. Maybe if he ever found some teammates that didn't annoy him to the point of insanity he would join them on a more permanent basis, but with these cretins for partners he shuddered to think of spending MORE time with them. Mei Lung was all right, but her attitude as a hunter was entirely wrong, the first tragedy to occur would break the girl. It was best to travel alone. He worked better without the distraction anyway. So why did his thoughts constantly cycle back to being on a team?  
  
The thudding footsteps from above ceased, followed a minute later by a particularly loud, and singular thump. Raven felt a brief moment of sadness at Mei Lungs passing, assuming the thump to be the dragon landing to enjoy its meal. The poor girl, she really was a good companion despite her childlike naivety and her sometimes annoying interruptions.  
  
Magus however was smiling as he flipped Merys face closed  
  
"Sounds like they gave that dragon a good beating" He said cheerfully packing his tools away.  
  
Raven remained doubtful. It was a statistical likelihood that the dragon was now having a well-earned snack. Seeing the bleak look on Ravens face Magus put a hand on his shoulder in his friendly fashion, a gesture soon brushed aside.  
  
"I'll make you a bet" Magus said still smiling "fifty meseta says she is still alive."  
  
"You're betting over whether a friend of yours is alive or dead?" Raven said accusingly "Make it thirty meseta and I'm in"  
  
"Done" said Magus grabbing Ravens hand and shaking it "Now pay up"  
  
"What?" Raven blinked "We don't even know if she is alive yet"  
  
"I do" Said Magus his grin growing wider  
  
"How?"  
  
"I'll show you" Said Magus walking over to Mery and taking hold of his wrist "This is a short range radar" He said lifting it up for Ravens closer inspection "And this little blip here, unless I am mistaken, would be Mei running towards us pretty damned fast" He held his hand out "Pay up Raven"  
  
Raven shrugged "For all you know that could be a monster running through the corridors"  
  
"I really don't think so Raven." Magus sounded irritatingly smug, but Raven was mostly hoping that Magus would win this bet, hoping that a teammate was dead for the sake of winning a bet? That was heartless even to Raven, anyone who thought like that was scum.  
  
For the second time that day Raven was knocked to the floor, the sudden impact cause him to cry out  
  
"Get it off me, whatever it is get it off!" He could hear the sound of Magus laughing, how could he laugh while his teammate was under attack?  
  
"Hey Raven, how have you been? I've been a lot better, all those sharks were really tough and then there was this weird dream and a man I didn't know was in it and he spoke to me but I don't remember what he said but it was really important but I ran down here to catch up with you guys because I really really want the money from this job I need it because I'm running out and need to buy food oh hi Magus how are you? There was a pause for breath.  
  
"Mei, as happy as I am that you are still alive I need you to do me a favor" Raven said speaking slowly and clearly  
  
"Sure Raven what do you want me to do?"  
  
"GET OFF OF ME!"  
  
Mei got to her feet and then helped Raven to his, she was cheerful and far too perky as usual. She reminded Raven somewhat of a six-year-old child on a sugar high. Still, he was glad she was okay. He held out his hand 30 meseta materializing, he handed the money to Magus.  
  
"Why thank you Raven for you most kind donation" Magus said still grinning, Raven pretended not to hear.  
  
"Okay, let's get moving, we're almost there team" Raven barked and walked towards the next chamber  
  
tchwing  
  
There was a flash of green and the mine fell from the air in two separate pieces  
  
"Not this time" Raven muttered  
  
Ten minutes later they were standing in an empty room, Magus was checking Merys equipment to verify the readings, Mei was in the middle of the room shading her eyes with her hand making the pantomime movements of a person looking for something  
  
"Helloooooo" She called "Is there anyone out there?"  
  
"Of course not" Raven snorted "I'd have noticed if there was. We're in the wrong place, that damn robot is malfunctioning."  
  
"No" Magus said with confidence "This is the right place, I'm sure of it. But there is nobody other than us on the radar. The client is probably just late."  
  
"I'm never late, I'm always right where I want to be" A hooded figure dressed in a black robe stepped out from the shadows A Varaha mag adorning their shoulders "So? Do you have a present for me?"  
  
Raven stepped forwards, silencing Magus with a gesture of his hand. The client would not appreciate pointless questions "We have it" He said, a small glowing item appearing in his hands "Now what about your end of the bargain? We didn't do this just for meseta you know"  
  
"You mercenaries, always the same, all business." The hooded persons voice was unreadable but definitely feminine "Here, take it" She produced a metallic object from within the folds of her robe.  
  
Raven smiled as the exchange was made. This should give him a considerable advantage in the tournaments.  
  
"Wait, what do you want with the photon drop anyway? Magus asked  
  
The figure had drawn a weapon and moved across the room, holding the blade to the throat of Magus. This had happened so quickly that the human eye could not follow. All Magus knew was that he should have kept his mouth shut.  
  
"I don't think that's any of your business, do you?" She whispered in his ear caressing his neck with the flat of the extremely long blade. Magus slowly shook his head  
  
"No, it isn't"  
  
"Good boy, now you just remember that" A slight breeze tickled the back of Magus' neck. He turned to look at the figure. She was gone  
  
"She gives me the creeps" Magus shuddered. Mei nodding effusively in agreement  
  
"That lady is really scary, and so is that sword. But I really think she needs new clothes, black robes? That is such an old look."  
  
"Mei, I really don't think she was trying to look fashionable" Said Raven as he set up the telepipe. But she was right, that woman, and especially her sword, scared everyone. Weren't metal blades abandoned back in the dark ages? Raven shrugged, who cared, he had what he wanted now all he cared about was collecting the meseta  
  
The group stepped into the telepipe's ring and warped back to pioneer. When they had collected their reward and exchanged guild cards they each went their separate ways. Raven hoped his would stay separate for as long as possible.  
  
Elsewhere on pioneer 2, Alice and Tatsu were just arriving at their, now shared, living quarters.  
  
"Here we are, home sweet home," Tatsu said as he opened the door. Alice stared around in amazement, this place was spotless! Every surface gleaming, every piece of furniture polished and a slight smell of disinfectant in the air.  
  
They walked in and Alice shut the door behind her, her old place was a hovel compared to this. Not only was the place immaculate but it was also huge.  
  
"Wow" Alice breathed in amazement "Why on Ragol did Ryzada ever move out?" This place had everything. An entertainment suite with Holo-video capabilities, an en-suite bathroom, the kitchen was simply amazing, there were utensils that Alice didn't even know the name for, let alone the use of. And there were more rooms that Alice had yet to see.  
  
"Hmm?" Tatsu looked up from the cupboard where he was neatly packing his mission equipment away "Oh, well I believe it was because she likes Crimson a lot, and I think the cleanness of my home freaked her out a little"  
  
"I love it" Alice really meant this, not being much for cleaning herself, she had not lived in a tidy home. In fact hers went past "lived in" well into "cluttered" she was a bit of a packrat. Actually she still had a few things in her pockets that she picked up some months ago.  
  
"Umm where should I put my things?" Alice asked. They had stopped by Alice's small quarters to pick up her clothes and other items of value, it didn't amount to a lot.  
  
Tatsu didn't even look up from his careful filing of equipment he just waved one hand indicating a little niche in the wall There were two doors, one on either side of the recess  
  
"Yours is the one on the right," he said "The left is mine, please don't go in my room"  
  
Alice walked over to the door, briefly inspecting the niche before entering her new room. The alcove contained a humidifier a de-humidifier a heater and a cooler, as well as a few things Alice didn't recognize. This place had environmental controls too? What was Tatsu? Royalty?  
  
Alice's new room took her breath away. There was a four-poster bed, which Alice soon discovered to be warm and comfortable. Down mattresses and feather pillows! There was a walk-in closet for her clothes (Alice decided she MUST buy enough clothes to fill it) A bedside glow-lamp bathed the room with its artificial but soothing light. Alice also discovered, much to her delight, a remote control. She could change the mood of the room with the press of a few buttons! And most spectacular of all there was a window. Not a real window, but a wall panel that could be changed to whatever Alice wanted outside to look like. She decided upon an artificial meadow, and she marveled for several long minutes at the detail, there were butterflies and rabbits, and the sounds of birdsong, each blade of grass moved with simulated breezes. Alice fell back on to the bed and sighed happily.  
  
"I take it you like your room then?" Tatsu asked from the doorway  
  
Alice jumped to her feet and hugged the unprepared hunter wrapping her arms round his neck  
  
"It's perfect Tatsu" She hugged him a little tighter and then let go blushing. "But how can you pay for all this?" A very good question, Tatsu appeared to make no more money than his friends, and Alice was certain they didn't live in this kind of luxury.  
  
Tatsu shrugged "This place used to belong to Elisel. Now that she's gone I've unofficially inherited it. Of course the mortgage was paid in full so all we have to worry about is bills"  
  
"Why did you never ask Crimson to move here with you and Ryzada?" asked Alice quite puzzled  
  
Tatsu chuckled a little "Crimson likes to think that he is independent, he would never accept an offer like that. A shame really, he loves all the gadgets."  
  
Alice smiled "I noticed that myself, "What kind of hunter carries a comm. Device with them?"  
  
"I don't know" Tatsu mused, "Those things are pretty useful if you need a message sent in a hurry. But if Crimson visits, I suggest you keep him away from that window."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because last time he was here he played with it for about an hour before I took the remote off of him"  
  
Alice giggled at the thought of the tall, focused team leader playing with a remote control.  
  
"Anyway you can arrange the room however you want, feel free to decorate it yourself, but remember you're cooking, so when you're hungry you should get dinner started." With that, Tatsu left the room, from the sounds of the doors he had entered his own.  
  
Alice lay back on the bed again. There was nothing wrong with the room, so she wasn't going to change it, but what should they have to eat? Most women would be offended by a man demanding that they cook But Alice didn't mind at all, she liked to cook, and anyway the deal was more than fair. So what if she had to sort out meals? In return she was staying in a room that would put the finest hotels to shame. Chicken cordon bleu Alice decided, that's what they would have. She was in the mood for something with a meaty taste to it. She hoped Tatsu wasn't vegetarian, it had been a while since she could afford chicken. But before she cooked she was going to take a nap, she deserved it. After all, it had been a long journey through that forest, and who knew what she was going to do tomorrow.  
  
I decided that characters need special skills, normal people have them so the hunters should too, Alice is a chef, Crimson is a techno-fanatic, Magus is a mechanic and other characters skills are undecided yet. Raven may be a weapon smith, but then he hated his father for dedication to his weapons so I don't know, oh sorry just thinking to myself 


	10. Let the Tournament Begin

Bloody hell (yes I'm British) I've really been slacking off recently haven't I? You know how it is, you mean to do something but then wander off, these things happen. So after that brief period of laziness, here's another chapter, bring on the tournament (and yes proplayer, of course there is a hi-tech solution)  
  
Crimson leaned back in his chair, the comforting hum of active technology surrounding him. The noisy but efficient environment generator, the cheap and somewhat out-dated plasma TV, and of course the eternally active computer.  
  
Crimson was possibly the only hunter whose PC had nothing whatsoever to do with his work, the most frequently run program was a retro, yet addictive little game called "Tetris". But right now it was in standby mode, unused as Crimson was engrossed in the news report  
  
"And in other news" The lip-sync was off by a tiny fraction of a second due to the inferior technology of the television, most people would not notice, Crimson however was perpetually annoyed by it.  
  
"The long awaited tournaments are due to begin, tomorrow hunters from all over pioneer will gather to fight for supremacy and the grand prize of five million meseta."  
  
No matter how many times he heard that Crimson would always feel a little warm glow inside, so much meseta so very much.  
  
"Over to our correspondent Chisato Madison" The screen changed to show a young girl standing outside the newly built arena where the tournament was to take place  
  
"Hiya folks it's me Chisato here! Standing outside the coliseum where literally hundreds of hunters have been lining up for days waiting for the tournament to begin. Excuse me sir?" She said intercepting a man who had got up to get a drink "What are your thoughts on this tournament? What is your reason for entering?" The hunter grinned broadly and waved at the camera  
  
"I'm here to kick some ass and it's gonna be freaking awesome, BOOYA!"  
  
Chisato looked momentarily stunned "Umm okay then" She spotted a new victim "You sir! What are you entering the tournament for?" The man, dressed entirely in black didn't even turn, he simply looked over his shoulder  
  
"I enter in the hopes that I may find a worthy opponent."  
  
Chisato quickly recovered from this one "Just goes to show the wide variety of people entering this tournament!"  
  
Further viewing of the program was brought to an end by a knock on the door, Crimson stood up and switched off everything except the computer and answered the polite knocking. It was Tatsu and Alice.  
  
"Hey Tatsu? What's Alice doing here?"  
  
"You could ask me directly, I am standing right here" Said Alice, slightly annoyed "And I'm here because I'm entering the tournament with you guys"  
  
"Are you sure about this Tatsu? I know she can fight but the tournament is dangerous"  
  
"She isn't made of glass you know" said Tatsu "She fought with us, she killed a hildebear that was throwing us about all over the place, and she even got rid of a telemarketer the other day."  
  
This was pretty impressive seeing as telemarketers were androids programmed not to give up until they made a sale.  
  
"Fine" Crimson grudgingly admitted "Alice has a right to enter, just don't say I didn't warn you when she gets hurt"  
  
Alice kicked Crimson sharply in the ankle "STOP TALKING ABOUT ME LIKE I'M NOT HERE!"  
  
"Oww okay okay, come in and take your coats off, I sort of forgot to get all my gear ready." Crimson looked a little sheepish  
  
"Tetris again?" asked Tatsu sympathetically as he took off his coat and hung it on the nearest available hook, Crimson nodded, then caught sight of Tatsu's arm, it was still black, but not burnt black, shiny metallic black. Crimson grabbed the arm and inspected it. High density metal alloy, light but durable, no doubt it was wired into Tatsu's nervous system to optimize reaction times, small radar display on the wrist and a set of tools built into the fore-arm, very nice work.  
  
Tatsu wrenched his arm free of Crimson's grip "Yes it's a robotic arm, yes its cool, yes it was expensive, no I am not going to tell you where I got it."  
  
Crimson decided to leave it at that, through an odd legal oversight it was illegal to perform cybernetic surgery in order to improve a person, it was however not illegal to get the surgery done, the only person breaking the law would be the doctor.  
  
Alice, who really couldn't care too much less about the details of Tatsu's body had ventured further into Crimsons home. It was pretty low-income quarters, right at the bottom end of the market, it reminded her of her place. Except Alice never had so many little flashing lights, everywhere she looked there were small electronic devices, some of them looked as if they pre-dated the pioneer project and were obsolete even back on Coral.  
  
Just then a screen blinked to life in front of her. A calm female voice spoke "Welcome new user, please state the nature of the information required"  
  
"A computer AI? Or is it just a simple program" Alice wondered aloud  
  
"Incomplete frame of reference please define "it""  
  
"Umm what are you?" Alice asked, a little uncertain as to where she should direct the question, she settled for speaking to the screen  
  
"I am a Intelligent Computerized Database or I.C.D"  
  
"What do you do?"  
  
"Command not understood, please rephrase"  
  
Oh damn, talking to machines was hard, you had to be really specific and ask exactly the right questions  
  
"What is your main function?" Alice thought this was a much better way to ask. "My major function is to provide users with information"  
  
It wasn't doing it very well, Alice thought, In fact it was being quite useless  
  
Just then Crimson stepped in, standing next to Alice "I see you've met Iced?"  
  
"Iced?" Alice was a little confused  
  
"It calls itself an I.C.D, so I call it Iced"  
  
"Oh, umm where did you get it from anyway?" Alice was curious to know "Things like this are obsolete aren't they?"  
  
"Believe it or not a person I met at the local tavern was selling it, a real bargain too, only two hundred meseta"  
  
"Two hundred? I wouldn't have paid that for it, I can't even get it to work"  
  
"Well uhh neither can I actually, its database is useless, it doesn't know anything, watch." He turned to face the screen.  
  
"Iced, what are the major components of a photon engine?  
  
"Requested information not found"  
  
"See" Crimson smiled sadly "It doesn't know a single thing, as far as I can tell it doesn't really have a purpose, I'd have to program it myself"  
  
"But you still think that two hundred meseta was a good deal?  
  
"Of course it was, all I need to do is learn how to program it and it will be perfect" suddenly Crimson faltered "If I'm here, and you're here.., who's watching Tatsu?" Crimson dashed to his living room, just a little too late, Tatsu was busily putting things away.  
  
"Your place is a mess Crimson, why doesn't Ryzada ever make you tidy it?" He said midway through organizing a drawer.  
  
"Because Tatsu, it was tidy before, I knew where everything was, I preferred it that way, and YOU'RE MESSING IT UP!"  
  
Crimson grabbed Tatsu by his normal arm and frog marched him out of the room locking the door behind him.  
  
"Alice" said Crimson in a commanding tone of voice "I'm going to go to my room and get my stuff for the tournament, you keep and eye on Tatsu and make sure he doesn't touch ANYTHING!"  
  
Alice put the comm.. device she was playing with back on the table and nodded "Right, I'll make sure he doesn't touch anything." Tatsu was practically twitching with the urge to tidy this place up, it was why he was rarely invited round.  
  
Ten minutes of idle chat later Crimson returned, looking as if he was about to storm a military base, without backup.  
  
"Crimson?" Tatsu asked "Excuse me for this minor observation, but isn't that a bit too much?"  
  
Crimson didn't shrug, he would have done but his shoulders were too weighed down. "Its just some stuff I thought I would be needing, monomate, dimate, monofluid, antidote, antiparz, sniper, saber, shot, backup sniper, mechguns, autogun and incase I need it a sonic grenade." There was a chirp from his left shoulder "Oh and of course Madhu"  
  
Most of the equipment vanished as it was put into storage by the Mag. Alice was a little shocked by the sheer volume of equipment Crimson was taking, wasn't he supposed to be poor?  
  
"Are you really going to need all that?" She said aghast, all she had brought was her staff, a handgun, a few healing items and Kyou, her Mag. Now freed of the encumbering weight of his equipment Crimson did shrug.  
  
"This tournament is going to last a while" he said "I'll need a lot of healing things and of course weapons for varying situations, they may come up with a special match rule that means I can't use my sniper or something"  
  
The randomized special rules, Alice had forgotten about them, what would she do if one of them meant she couldn't use techniques in one of her matches? She suddenly felt very under prepared.  
  
"I only have a few monofluids and a difluid or two, that's not going to be enough" She said disheartened by her lack of readiness.  
  
"Here borrow some of Ryzada's" Crimson said digging through a drawer "She won't mind, she's hardly likely to take a job on her own, I'll just replace them later." He produced several vials of the concentration restoring fluids and handed them to Alice, who gratefully accepted and passed them on to Kyou which immediately stored them for later use.  
  
"How do Mags store things anyway?" Alice wondered aloud  
  
To everyone's surprise, especially Tatsu's as he had never even seen it before, Iced answered Alice's question.  
  
"Mags store items in a minute space inside their bodies, the item to be stored is shrank to a tiny fraction of its original size using advanced gravimetric technology to remove the space between the items atoms, decreasing its volume but also increasing its density."  
  
"It worked" Crimson blinked "In real English too, and it explains why Mags have to float, I mean if the volume is lowered but the density is raised then weight must remain constant, so this tiny space within a Mag could contain a ton or more of compressed items, so this means that-" He was cut off by Tatsu  
  
"That's very nice and we are all amazed, really we are, but we should get going before Ryzada comes back from wherever it is she went."  
  
"Oh of course" said Crimson "And Ryzada is at the salon, having her hair done I think, she said she didn't want to be here when I left, she didn't want to have to say goodbye, I can see her point"  
  
"Why?" asked Alice clearly not understanding  
  
"Because of the chance I may not come back." Crimson shrugged as if indifferent to the idea. "The tournament isn't that dangerous is it?" Alice bit her lower lip, now very nervous.  
  
"There are safety measures, no need to worry about that" Tatsu reassured her "But money hungry Crimson here" He jabbed Crimson in the chest with one finger "has entered in the pit fights too, and monsters aren't all that well know for showing mercy."  
  
"Money hungry?" Crimson protested "I'm doing it for the fame and the legions of adoring fans that I may get out of this." He looked thoughtful "And maybe the money." He broke into a grin behind his mask "Who am I kidding? I love money, now lets get going before Ryzada gets back."  
  
The trio walked down the long corridors and took the lift to the ground floor, for the first time since boot camp Crimson was going to leave the residential block, Block 8 the same as all other blocks was like a city, it had everything a person could possibly need, housing, shops, recreational facilities, a medical center and of course laboratories factories and various other places of employment. The party's destination was an area that until recently didn't even exist as an area, it was in fact a cargo hold that held foodstuffs that had been eaten since arrival at ragol, it was also several miles away, they were going to need transportation.  
  
Crimson attempted to flag down a passing grav-taxi, but he was simply ignored. The next taxi also ignored his frantic arm gestures.  
  
"This is STUPID" Crimson yelled at the ceiling "What is the point of having a taxi if you don't stop for people?"  
  
"I think I could get us one" Said Alice "I'm sure of it"  
  
"Fine be my guest" Crimson sat down "These drivers are a bunch of ignorant bastards anyway"  
  
"Now now Crimson, mind your language, there's a lady present" Tatsu reprimanded."  
  
And so they waited for another taxi, 3 games of blackjack later one appeared in the distance, it showed no sign of slowing down  
  
"Well Alice? What's your brilliant plan?" Crimson asked moodily, he had lost 20 meseta in those 3 games, he was certain Tatsu cheated.  
  
Alice didn't respond, instead she kept her sights fixed on a seemingly random point of the floor. As the taxi passed this point she mouthed one word silently  
  
"Rafoie"  
  
There was a deafening explosion and the taxi flipped through the air landing with a slam, it did however hover a few feet about the ground indicating the anti-grav device was still intact, just as Alice had planned.  
  
A window appear in the side of the taxi and the driver stuck his head out  
  
"Hey whaddya think ya doin' to my cab! Ya owe me big time for duh paint job."  
  
Alice smiled brightly at the man "Me and my friends wanna go to cargo hold three pwease."  
  
The taxi drivers face paled "So you guys is? Dat means you are, hunta's?" His head disappeared back inside the cab and a door lifted open on the side of the vehicle.  
  
Alice hopped inside, still smiling "See? I told you I could get us a taxi."  
  
Crimson just shook his head and climbed inside, Tatsu followed after him.  
  
After an uneventful and needlessly prolonged taxi journey Crimson Alice and Tatsu had arrived at the coliseum formerly known as cargo hold three  
  
"Dats one hun'red and tweny m ya owe me" Said the driver holding out his hand  
  
Crimson, grumbling about it of course, handed the driver his money. It wasn't like he was even going to fix that dent, thieving scum.  
  
The crowd was huge, the boot camp had definitely been turning out too many hunters, and with the standard soldiers also being allowed to participate there was an immense number of combatants awaiting admittance, it was however nothing compared to the number of citizens with spectator tickets. It was a good job that there were so many entrances to the place, or it would have taken a lot longer than 3 hours to get inside. Tatsu pointed this out to Crimson at least five times. Crimson still didn't like the wait. Maybe it was just the vast numbers of people who didn't recognize him in any way?  
  
Upon admittance they were handed their tournament equipment which consisted of an all access combatants pass, a spectator seat ticket the keycard to their hotel room (They had declared themselves as a party of three" and a pager so they could be alerted when their matches were due.  
  
The three walked to their room, Crimsons face shining with delight at his new toy  
  
"It's got a backlit crystal display, its not even liquid, do you have any idea how old the technology for this thing is?"  
  
"No we don't, please enlighten us" Tatsu sighed  
  
"Ignore him" said Alice "I'm listening even if Tatsu isn't" Alice loved history, she had read file upon file of information regarding Coral and of course her favorite subject, the first hunters.  
  
And so Crimson gave an in depth explanation of the pager he now held, by the time he was done Alice knew exactly how to work hers and probably fix it if it broke. They had also reached their hotel room.  
  
"Okay here goes" Said Crimson, producing the keycard and inserting it into the slot at the side of the door. The door slid open and the card was returned, Crimson pocketed it and reminded himself to look at the reading device later.  
  
The room itself was unspectacular, less than what Tatsu was used to but more than Crimson was. 3 single beds, basic entertainment system, which Crimson began examining immediately, and basic environmental control.  
  
There was a sound of electrical sparks and a few curses from Crimson  
  
"What are you doing?" Alice asked, leaning over Crimsons shoulder  
  
"I'm trying to, oww dammit, fix up this TV they only gave us a few channels, sonofa bitch, wait wait, there, done." Crimson stood up looking pleased with himself, despite the burned fingertips.  
  
"Umm so what did you do to it?"  
  
"It's quite simple really, when there are channels that you haven't subscribed to, their signals are scrambled by a small device in the TV, by running a parallel circuit past this device you can receive the unscrambled signal and watch that channel, and it can't be traced because the signal is also running the standard way, the best part is that you can remove the new wiring leaving no trace." Crimson continued to look pleased with himself  
  
"I don't get it" Alice shook her head in confusion  
  
Crimson sighed "We have free TV"  
  
"Oh, why didn't you just say that?"  
  
"I did, you just didn't know that was what I said."  
  
"Umm okay, if you say so Crimson" Alice yawned "I'm kinda sleepy, its taken us so long to get here, I think I'm going to have a quick nap."  
  
An excellent idea, and one that Tatsu had already acted upon. He was sleeping soundly having decided to test the beds while Crimson fooled around with the TV. Crimson wasn't tired but tried to get some rest anyway, matches started the next morning and it could be his turn at any time. 


	11. Freaking awesome! BOOYA!

Okay, after confiscating breath of fire: dragon quarter, from myself I am now ready to write another chapter, damn I wish I was playing dragon quarter right now, this happens to me everytime, it was unbelievable when I first got neverwinter nights, but after therapy I got over it.  
  
A shrill beeping roused Ryzada from her nap, she stretched out and yawned then picked up the small device responsible for her awakening, her heart leapt to her throat, it was a message from Crimson. He couldn't have gotten injured already? She should never have let him enter, on the first day into it things had gone horribly wrong.  
  
"Ryzada you're being ridiculous" She scolded herself "He said he'd tell me everything so this is probably just a quick update." She pressed the play button and Crimsons voice filled the room.  
  
"Hi Ryzada this is just a quick update, stop being ridiculous I haven't gotten injured already." Ryzada smiled to herself, sometimes it was as if Crimson could read her mind. The message continued "Well we're at our hotel room, which is now a dirt free area thanks to Tatsu's valiant efforts at cleaning, I'm the first of us to fight, I'm against some hunter called Shadow, I've never heard of them and it sounds like the kinda name amateurs trying to look tough would give themselves don't you think? So an easy victory in my first round and then back to the hotel for dinner, Alice is cooking for us, we're having bouillabaisse , she's an excellent cook you know."  
  
Ryzada felt a pang of jealousy when she heard Crimson compliment Alice's cooking, she immediately made a mental apology. So he said something nice about Alice? He was allowed to do that. Crimsons voice continued delivering its message "Well my match is in an hour, I should start getting ready, I'm going to be on TV ryz! I hope you watch. Gotta go now, cheer for me." And with a brief crackle of static the message ended. Ryzada didn't really like TV, for one thing she could hear the electrics hum, but she would watch it this time, not cheering but definitely praying.  
  
Crimson flattened himself against a rock, Shadow was a better fighter than he had anticipated. He chanced a look and got a brief glimpse of his enemy moving through some trees before rifle fire forced him to resume hiding. Holding his mechguns firmly Crimson made ready to move, Shadow would be about 10 meters to the right of where he had just seen him. He leapt out from behind his rock and fired blindly into the trees, he landed rolling and sprang lightly to his feet.  
  
"Keep moving, keep firing, keep yourself alive" he muttered the maxim often used by his boot camp instructor. Suddenly his efforts were rewarded by a cry of pain and the thud of a weapon hitting the ground. The incoming fire stopped and Crimson crept warily towards the trees, on his guard incase this was a bluff.  
  
He found Shadow's rifle lying on the ground, a section of it was melted, obviously that was what Crimson had managed to hit. But where was Shadow, you had to think like a rookie to beat one, amateurs they may be, but they were still dangerous. Now what would seem like a cunning and unpredictable move to a rookie? Crimson drew his saber and sliced cleanly through the nearest tree which toppled over and hit the floor with a crash, a black clad figure pinned beneath one of the branches. Crimson pointed his saber at Shadows throat.  
  
"Which means you, my worthy opponent, have lost" The look on Shadows face was one of disgust, most likely at himself. Crimson knelt down and pressed the button on Shadows breast plate activating the device that signaled Shadows defeat and Crimson's victory. When given the chance Crimson preferred not to injure others, and since the other method of victory was to cause the opponents vital signs to drop to critical levels Crimson's favored method of ending a match was this one.  
  
Crimson stepped out from the trees with his hands raised in victory, the vast crowd was applauding and cheering for him, this was bliss, at this very instant in time Crimson was a hero, even if it only lasted a few moments, those moments were his forever.  
  
"And the winner is Crimson Pryandomar." His victory was announced over the loudspeaker "Well folks matches don't get much better than that one, 25 minutes of fast-paced photon fire and a brilliant game of cat and mouse. Young Crimson really has proved himself today, the question is, just how far will he go?"  
  
"All the way" Crimson smiled to himself "All the damned way"  
  
Ryzada breathed again for the fist time in about a minute, that was too close, if Crimson had picked the wrong tree, or if Shadow had made his move faster it would have been over. Her heart was probably under more stress than Crimsons. It was a stupid idea to let him compete, stupid stupid stupid!  
  
Ryzada turned the TV off, she didn't care how the other hunters did, all she cared was that her friends were alright, as long as the people close to her were okay then Ryzada was too. There was nothing more important than friends  
  
Magus kicked the wall, leaving a sizable dent, friends were bloody useless. He had requested that Mery bring him some things he had left in his apartment, the android had been gone for far too long, the match started in 30 minutes and he was still without proper equipment! Magus had no doubt that he could best his opponent no matter who they were, it was simply a question of style, and what was stylish if not advanced gadgets and exotic looking blades? It was no good, he had to leave for the arena now if he was to be on time, Mery was in for a world of hurt when he got back. Adjusting the mask he had purchased to protect his identity Magus left his hotel room and set off for the arena at a jog. He had been jogging for five minutes when he saw a familiar face, forgetting he was supposed to be in disguise Magus called out to them  
  
"Hey Crimson" he waved "I saw your match, my grandmother fights better than you!"  
  
Crimson fell into step with Magus keeping up with him easily "Maybe so but you don't have any victories to your name at all just yet."  
  
"I'm on my way to collect one right now, some hunter called Derek is waiting to hand me it."  
  
"I'm sure he is quaking." Crimson grinned  
  
"May I remind you I am the feared and respected assassin Magus Black?"  
  
"The one who "Never killed anybody" you mean?"  
  
"That's right"  
  
"Excuse me for a moment, but you mean you never completed an assassination?"  
  
"Oh I never said that." Magus shrugged as if this was nothing "I've assassinated quite a few people, but I never murdered or killed them"  
  
"What's the difference?" Crimson honestly did not understand the logic behind this  
  
"Murderers murder people because that person annoys them, killers kill people because they like the feeling of power over their lives, I'm an assassin I assassinate people for money, and I moved out of that business a while ago." Magus said the last part almost mechanically  
  
"Doesn't that weigh on your conscience at all? That you were responsible for those deaths?"  
  
"Not really, it's not as if I was doing anything illegal was it now?" Yet another legal oversight, The client was breaking the law, not the assassin, the assassin was providing a public service.  
  
"So who sent you to kill, sorry I mean "assassinate" that soldier?"  
  
"I didn't do that, and now you are going to shut up about it and never mention it ever again or I will find a client who wishes to have you removed, even if I have to pay myself."  
  
"I don't get you Magus, sometimes you seem like a normal hunter and the rest of the time its like you're an alien or something."  
  
"Yeah isn't it a total bitch?" Magus laughed and sped off into the distance, even running as fast as he could Crimson couldn't even come close to keeping up with him so he stopped chasing.  
  
"Weirdo." He muttered and jogged back to his hotel room wondering briefly what bouillabaisse was and what it tasted like, oh well he would find out later.  
  
"Weirdo" muttered Magus as he sprinted along the corridor, what the hell was Crimson's interest in his life anyway? What did it matter to him? People should keep their nose out of the business of others, otherwise it would quite likely be cut off.  
  
Magus arrived at the arena ten minutes early for his match and so sat in the combatant preparation room, this was where fighters could psyche themselves up, check their weapons or buy refreshments. Magus didn't need to psyche himself up, he had no weapons to check and he certainly wasn't thirsty. So he sat down on a bench and waited for his match to be announced. A mistake it turned out  
  
A hunter dressed in blue and white threw the door open and jumped in, his arms out wide and his face grinning broadly, the name Derek was written across his chest plate.  
  
"Duuuuude I hear you're my opponent, whoa man I pity you, cos I'm one bad ass, butt kicking fighter! BOOYA!" Derek head butted the air.  
  
Magus said nothing pretending not to see the new arrival but he fervently wished that the match would start, another five minutes of this and there would be a corpse before the match began.  
  
Finally, just before Magus' temper ran out, the match was announced and the two fighters entered the combat zone. Derek leaping around and waving at the fans  
  
"OH YEAH! I'M THE FREAKING GREATEST BAY-BEE!"  
  
Magus walked slowly, silently contemplating the ways in which he would cause pain to this fool, he struck upon an idea that he liked and an evil smile twisted his lips. The klaxon signaled the start of the match and Magus cracked his knuckles in anticipation, this was going to be sweet.  
  
The announcer was stunned "Lets see that again in slow motion for those folks out there who blinked and missed this fight." The entire 7.43 seconds that the match lasted was played at one third speed. "And there you saw it folks, Mr Black working the upper body, I'm sure that broke a few ribs, and ohhh there's that leg sweep followed by the crushing heel-drop, another kick to the ribs and this one is over. I think we will be seeing more of Black in the next few days, and now our official reporter for the event Chisato Madison catches up with Derek as he lies in the hospital."  
  
The main screen flicked to an image of the ever perky reporter and what appeared to be an ancient Egyptian mummy.  
  
"So Derek? How does it feel to know that your bid for fame and glory has been stopped short by the breaking of almost every bone in your body?"  
  
The mummy spoke "dude.., freaking awesome.., booya." He said weakly  
  
"And there you have it folks, the first casualty of the tournament, possibly brain damaged."  
  
Magus flicked the TV off "It's not like he wasn't mentally retarded already."  
  
There was a knock at the door. Magus went to answer it, fully prepared to bring a terrible vengeance down upon Mery for failing to get his equipment, he opened the door  
  
"ABOUT TIME YOU STUPID PIECE OF JUNK, I'VE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY!"  
  
An innocent girlish face blinked at him, not the blank metallic one he had been expecting  
  
"Hiya Magus" Mei said apparently oblivious to the fact that she had just been yelled at "I signed up for the tournament cos I wanna get on TV and be famous, not famous like Chisato, I know you like her but I want to be even MORE famous and I said I was with you so I would be sharing your room is that alright? I hope it is, please don't be mad at me." She looked like she was about to cry  
  
"Ahh no no, its perfectly fine Mei, umm come in." Magus said quickly, a crying girl was NOT something he wanted to deal with.  
  
Mei cheered up instantly "Okay, thanks a lot Magus I knew I it would be okay, you're always really nice to me." She leaned forwards and kissed Magus on the cheek before brushing past him and setting her stuff down on the floor.  
  
Magus was at the same time highly embarrassed, blushing terribly, and was highly aware of the state of the room, he had not really bothered to clean up after himself.  
  
The rest of the evening passed pretty quietly. Mery still hadn't come back, which Magus viewed as a good thing, but he was still edgy around Mei, should he talk to her? Should he just leave her alone? What? Why was she even here when she could have had her own room? He pondered these questions over dinner, which also confused him, a quiet meal for two in his room? Was this normal between friends? These questions kept him thinking right up until he decided it was time for bed, at which point he had a new problem to think about.  
  
He climbed into his bed, keeping on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt and then realized, there was only one bed, and no settee or anything, this room was a single, Mery could sleep standing in a corner, but what about Mei?  
  
"Mei?" He asked "There is only one bed, where did you plan on sleeping?"  
  
"Where else silly?" Mei answered giggling as if Magus had just asked something very funny, instead of the one he was actually taking very seriously. "I'll just sleep here."  
  
Magus felt a warm weight settle on his chest and an arm drape across his shoulder, he tensed at the close physical contact.  
  
"Mei?" he asked nervously "What are you doing?" But Mei didn't answer, she was already dozing quite peacefully, having fallen asleep in only seconds. And so it was that Magus Black, feared and respected assassin spent the most uncomfortable night of his entire life.  
  
AN: heh heh Magus you sly old fox, you do know that Mei is underage? Well that chapter explained pretty much nothing at all, and so a new one will be needed soon, (maybe one of these days I should explain why Pioneers legal system is so screwed up?) anyhow, Psilo is in next chapter, and some other interesting stuff will happen I swear! And don't ya think Derek deserved it? Help pass a law against people like him! 


	12. A Few Weeks In

Okay then, uhh there are a few ideas for this chapter, so even I'm not too sure exactly what's going to be in it, but psilo will appear, and chimpus may or may not, on the subject of chimpus, c'mon people read his fic, its well worth the time. And I thought I covered this in the first chapter? But oh well here goes again. I OWN NOTHING, I STEAL IT ALL, except characters and plot concept, those are mine.  
  
Ryzada hurled the remote at the TV, yelling it in sheer frustration. How could they do this? This was TOTALLY unfair! They just couldn't stop broadcasting matches! What if something happened to Crimson or Alice? She wouldn't even know, oh and if Tatsu got hurt, that would be bad too. Ryzada yelled at the TV some more and composed some hate mail to the president of the broadcasting network then huffily sat down in her favorite chair.  
  
How was this fair? Without the news covering matches Ryzada had no way of knowing what was happening at the coliseum, sure Crimson sent her updates, but she needed to be able to see that he was fine. Crimson was not above lying to her. There had to be a way she could watch his matches. Spectator seats! That was it, she just had to get tickets. But they were expensive and she had no money, she needed to find a job. But the chair was getting awfully comfortable, maybe just a short nap before she left? Yes that would be nice. Ryzada curled up into a ball and fell asleep. Elsewhere on pioneer, somebody was only just waking up.  
  
"Magus? Are you awake?" Mei asked in the dreamy, half asleep voice of somebody only recently awoken.  
  
"No"  
  
"Okay then, tell me when you do wake up, because I need to talk to you."  
  
Magus sighed, a shocking percentage of houseplants could beat Mei in a battle of wits. "I'm awake Mei, what is it you wanted to talk about?"  
  
Mei sat up, which meant she was straddling Magus' stomach, Magus tried to switch his brain to the off position.  
  
"Well I had this really strange dream, there was a man in it and he was wearing a dress."  
  
"You mean he was a force?"  
  
Mei nodded empathically which caused her to bounce a little, Magus averted his eyes. "Anyway it was really strange that I was dreaming about a person because normally I dream about bunnies and things, and he said something to me and I didn't understand at all."  
  
"What did he say?" Magus believed in dreams acting as signs so his interest was genuine.  
  
Mei frowned "he said, Light makes darkness, a pair exists, but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever. I really don't understand it Magus, but you're so smart, I thought you might know what it means."  
  
"Not a clue, sorry Mei." Magus said propping himself up on his elbows "Now how about you get off of me and I'll make some breakfast?" He kept his tone casual and slightly cheerful, but inside he was troubled, "Reincarnation goes forever" His master had said that to him, he'd also said he would explain it when Magus was ready. Dammit old man, why did you have to go and get killed? No use worrying about it now, asking questions of dead people had never resulted in an answer. Magus decided to forget about Mei's dream and concentrate on the breakfast, he didn't really fancy scorched sausages this morning.  
  
Crimson wolfed down his breakfast, he wasn't hungry, it was so he didn't have to taste it so much. Alice was in a match this morning and Tatsu had volunteered to make breakfast, Tatsu was not a good cook. Dropping his empty plate into the sink Crimson hurried back to the small room that was probably designed for storage purposes. He grabbed a few wires and components off of the table on his way and then locked himself in the cupboard.  
  
Tatsu sighed, the whole secrecy thing was really starting to annoy him, what was Crimson doing that he wouldn't even share with his best friend? Stupid question really, he was making something, It was easy to tell because Crimson was swearing frequently as he worked. Tatsu cleared the table of junk and breakfast leftovers and sat himself down in front of the TV. So far the tournament was boring him, but he knew that was going to be the case. The first few matches it was very likely that the opponent would be a wimp who only entered for the hell of it. Now that those first few fights were done with things should start to get interesting, Tatsu was sure of that, why else stop the news coverage? It was to make people buy tickets to watch the fights live.  
  
Alice entered the room and crashed out on the bed, her breathing was ragged and her clothes were covered in dirt, Tatsu was immediately worried about the bed sheets, and then Alice.  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked "It looks like that match was rather rough on you."  
  
"Oh I'm fine" Alice panted "Don't worry so much Tatsu, I'm a big strong girl I can handle myself." At the present moment she didn't look big or strong, she looked rather small and exhausted. Tatsu pointed this out to her  
  
"I told you I'm fine." Alice said with slight irritation "I just need to rest a little, that's all, I don't know how you and Crimson do it, you both come back looking like you just went out for a short walk."  
  
"Trade secret" Tatsu smiled "Or maybe its just we know our limitations and are a little more careful on the battlefield, I've seen you fight Alice, you're a little reckless."  
  
"Sorry mother, I'll be more careful next time. Now if you'll excuse me? I need to sleep a little." With that said Alice quickly fell into a light doze. Tatsu decided to leave her to it, though her clothes were going to be a real pain to get clean again.  
  
Crimson opened his cupboard door "Is that Alice just got back?" he asked poking his head through the opening, obscuring Tatsu's view of whatever lay within.  
  
"Yes and she's sleeping, so be quiet" Tatsu warned  
  
"Well maybe I should stop working for a bit?" Said Crimson "I'm not too sure on this next part and it may be quite loud."  
  
"Quite loud?" Tatsu winced at the horrible memories of Crimson developing the sonic grenade, the "slight noise" that occurred then had shattered glass. Quite loud was definitely not going to be a fun experience.  
  
"Umm yeah." Crimson grinned "Quite loud, as in may explode violently and without warning."  
  
"Well then give it a break and perfect the theory before putting it into practice, I would rather not have a repeat of handgun upgrade incident."  
  
Crimson smiled "That was a good one, such a pity it didn't work. Made a nice bomb though."  
  
"Just sit down and watch some TV please?" Tatsu begged, he had no wish to be in the room when Crimson got to the dangerous part of whatever he was doing. Thankfully Crimson also didn't want to be in the room when he got to the dangerous part and so they both ended up watching a game show and complaining about the stupidity of the contestants.  
  
Ryzada sat back in the uncomfortable plastic chair, she missed her armchair back home. But the wait was necessary until the client arrived. The job looked to be rather interesting. A hunter was searching for their missing friend, there were a lot of mysterious disappearances lately, but this one didn't seem to fit in with the others. So far all of the missing hunters were from pioneer 2. This "Skyla" person was on the roster of pioneer 1, Alice would have found this fascinating, to Ryzada it was merely interesting. Where was these client?  
  
The client burst through the doors not 3 minutes later, looking rather out of breath "Sorry, to, keep, you, waiting." She panted taking a few deep breaths  
  
Ryzada blinked "That's okay." What was this ranger wearing? Purple and black were not really complimentary colors  
  
"Well my name is Psilo and thank you for answering the ad, I'm sure the three of us will get along just fine"  
  
"Three?" Asked Ryzada puzzled, then she noticed the other ranger by the door way. "Oh, are you sure it's alright to bring children along? Ragol is kinda dangerous."  
  
"I am not a child!" the ranger by the door stamped her foot "And you're hardly taller than me, so you can just shut your mouth!"  
  
"Never mind Kilili" Psilo said half smiling "She may be a little on the short side, but she does well enough in a fight, and besides did I ever say we were going to go to Ragol?"  
  
Ryzada was confused "I thought we were looking for a missing friend of yours?"  
  
"We are" Said Kilili scathingly "But did it ever occur to you that Pioneer might be big enough to get lost on?"  
  
Ryzada said nothing, the midget had a point, Pioneer was definitely not the safest place in the worlds.  
  
Finally she spoke up "So where are we going? Do you have any clues as to Skyla's whereabouts?"  
  
"None actually" Psilo said with a grimace "All we know is she was meeting a friend at the Shattered Shield and we haven't heard from her since."  
  
"The Shattered Shield?" Ryzada asked "What was she doing there exactly?" The Shattered Shield was a tavern favored by lowlifes and degenerates, all in all it was a very unfriendly pub in a very unfriendly part of pioneer.  
  
"We don't really know that either, but there was nothing shady about it I assure you." Psilo's tone was practically daring Ryzada to challenge this statement.  
  
"Umm okay, so where do we start looking?" Ryzada was a little unnerved by this pair of rangers.  
  
"Where else?" Kilili rolled her eyes "We're going to the Shattered Shield to ask a few questions."  
  
So Ryzada set off with her two new "friends". She had a bad feeling about this job, but she needed money to get her ticket so there was no use in complaining.  
  
Bit of a short chapter really, sorry but I'm tired, and oh I lied Chimpus is not in this chapter, most likely to be in the next, uhh I did intend to answer a few things in this chapter, failed a little didn't I? Just more questions for you readers to ponder, What is Crimson doing? What was Mei's dream all about? Where is Skyla? Did Magus burn the breakfast?!? All these questions and more, not answered in the next exciting chapter! 


	13. Handy in a Pinch

Dear god somebody help me! I recently managed to get Ryzada onto ultimate difficulty, I somehow fluked my way through the forest (where mothverts were beating me up and stealing my lunch money) then I got past the sil dragon (after panicking and screaming) and met my very first ob lily in the caves, now I've stopped playing for a while so I can write damn I hate ultimate mode.  
  
Crimson awoke to the sounds of shrill beeping, he rolled over and hit his alarm clock. The beeping didn't stop and Crimson suddenly realized that it was his pager. What was it doing beeping at this ungodly hour in the morning? Crimson looked at the clock, 1am? This page had better be important. He grabbed the pager and silenced it also taking the time to read the message scrolling across its dimly lit screen.  
  
ARENA 4, 6AM, YATSURA, NO TECHNIQUES  
  
Arena 4, but wasn't that the gladiator arena? Fantastic a wide open area, Crimson HATED wide open areas, it meant he lost almost all his ranged advantage. The ban on techniques wasn't too heavy a blow as Crimson rarely used them. But whoever Yatsura happened to be, they would receive hell for causing Crimson to be awake at 1am.  
  
Crimson slipped out of his tee-shirt and donned his armor, fumbling with several of the clasps as a result of the darkness and the fact that he wasn't awake yet.  
  
Once fully awake and ready for battle Crimson sat at the table shoveling a bowl of cereal down his throat, no time to eat properly, he had to finish this weapon.  
  
And so it was that Alice found him at 5:30 in the morning, slumped over the table with a screwdriver in his right hand and an odd box in his left. She shook him gently by the shoulder  
  
"Whut?" Crimson said sleepily raising his head from the table  
  
"Umm sorry to wake you Crimson, but it can't be doing you any good to sleep like that." Alice apologized  
  
"I fell asleep!" Crimson was instantly alert "What time is it?"  
  
"umm 27 minutes to 6"  
  
"Oh crap! My match!" Crimson threw the screwdriver and the strange box into his cupboard and grabbed his rifle and Madhu from where they rested near the door, Madhu chirped in annoyance, Crimson's MAG didn't really like mornings either.  
  
"Hey don't you want any breakfast" Alice called as Crimson hurried out of the door.  
  
"No! that's okay! I already ate!" Crimson yelled as he raced down the corridor, narrowly avoiding a collision with a cleaner.  
  
Tatsu looked up from his breakfast and swallowed the mouthful of bacon he had been chewing on. "Crimson seemed to be in an awful hurry this morning." He said speculatively  
  
"Yup, I think he almost overslept and missed a match, and at this stage in the tournament, that would be bad." Alice called cheerily from the kitchen. Unlike Crimson and his MAG, Alice was a morning person, somehow she could awaken and feel fully refreshed and full of energy.  
  
"Well he musht have been ruhnnin really late." Tatsu said through a mouthful of mushrooms.  
  
"Tatsu, don't talk with your mouth full" Alice scolded "Not only is it bad manners but its disgusting."  
  
Tatsu swallowed "Sorry" he grinned "But as I was saying, Crimson must have had no time at all, he didn't lock that cupboard of his"  
  
"So?"  
  
"Aren't you curious at all?" Tatsu asked "I've been dying to know what he's been doing in there."  
  
Alice entered the room and sat at the table with her breakfast, hers had taken longer because she liked to have eggs in the morning. "Well I must admit I am kinda curious" she confessed "But it's obviously private, so we should respect that and leave it alone."  
  
"You're no fun at all" Tatsu said pointing his fork at her "What harm would one little look do? It's not like Crimson would know."  
  
"Fine, you look if you want to" Alice said picking up her knife and fork "But I doubt you'll even know what it is anyway." With that she tucked into her breakfast  
  
Tatsu stood up and took his plate into the kitchen, then he walked purposefully to the now unlocked cupboard door, he placed his hand firmly on the handle and pulled the door ajar. He was greeted by a mess of wires and blinking lights. Okay fine, Alice was right, he didn't have a clue what this stuff was. He walked into the room and picked up a random object. Upon recognizing it he flinched instinctively. When nothing happened he placed it carefully back on the table, Handguns were a source of fear for Tatsu, at least when Crimson had been "improving" them.  
  
One of the lights blinked from green to red. Tatsu leaned in to look closer, there were characters on the device, they were changing Z, E, D, G, huh? What did these mean? B, okay there wasn't even a pattern here , A. and then it stopped changing, the light blinked yellow, Tatsu paled and ran out of the cupboard. A tongue of flame licked out after him.  
  
"Zeta, Epsilon, Delta." Tatsu muttered.  
  
Alice sipped her tea calmly "Sorry Tatsu? What was that?"  
  
"Nothing, its just Crimsons own little way of having a countdown"  
  
Alice took another sip "Well I did try to tell you not to go looking in there."  
  
"Well I'm not going to do it again, happy now?"  
  
Alice finished her tea and set the cup down "Yup"  
  
"What is it with forces and herbal teas anyway?" Tatsu said suspiciously "No-one else ever drinks them"  
  
"I don't know, but you should try it Tatsu, it calms you down. You look a little jumpy and tense, had a bit of a shock?" Alice smiled  
  
"Okay when are you going to stop laughing at me about this?" Tatsu demanded  
  
"Until I don't find it funny anymore, so quite a long while." Alice cleared her breakfast tray away.  
  
"I'm going back to bed" Tatsu declared grouchily  
  
"It might be the safest place for you" Alice said brightly "You never know what dangerous things could be just lying around"  
  
"Could you please stop it?"  
  
"Nope" Alice turned the TV on and sat down, still smiling, there was nothing on except chat shows, and Alice felt these to be an insult to her intelligence, so she watched the early morning cartoons instead.  
  
It turned out that Yatsura was a female android, and so was also unbothered by the ban on techniques for this match. She was however extremely quick and Crimson was hard pressed to keep avoiding her attacks. She swung at his head, narrowly missing as Crimson sidestepped.  
  
"You do know that this is in violation of Asimov's first law of robotics?  
  
Yatsura answered by launching another attack that missed Crimson by scant inches, obviously she was too serious for idle banter during combat. She pressed the attack and Crimson began to struggle, his dodges becoming less graceful and his blocks more hasty, and still the android did not relent.  
  
Finally she got inside his guard, opening a wound across his cheek. There was no blood as it was a photon inflicted injury and was cauterized the instant it was caused. Crimson also felt no pain, as the nerve endings were burned instantaneously.  
  
Crimson stumbled backwards, the blow had caused him to lose his footing. Another flash of blue and his body armor was scored. Crimson winced at the thought of having to pay for repair to it. Yatsura drew her arm back for another blow, but in doing so she raised her center of gravity. Seeing his chance Crimson crouched and lashed out with one foot, tripping Yatsura so that she landed flat on her back. Crimson leapt forwards, intending to land on Yatsura and de-activate her. Unfortunately she was ready for him, being an android she did not experience the momentary shock that a human would have done had they been swept off their feet. Bringing a knee up she grabbed Crimsons arms and extended her leg, flinging him several feet behind her.  
  
Crimson rolled as he landed, springing quickly to his feet. His breathing was slightly heavy, the fight was taking its toll on him, whereas his opponent, unaffected by the human condition of fatigue was as fresh as ever. But that was it! All this time Crimson had been fighting as if he faced another human, It hadn't occurred to him up until now that his opponent was fundamentally different to him. Crimson thought of everyone as equals, but equal or not Yatsura was a machine, and machines had certain weaknesses  
  
Madhu picked up on Crimsons thoughts immediately and dropped a metallic cylinder into his hand. Crimson smiled and Madhu chirped happily, his master was pleased with him. Crimson held the cylinder at arms length, It wasn't a perfectly cylindrical shape, there was a lump at one end, a button.  
  
Yatsura was back on her feet and circling Crimson warily, she had no idea what the canister was. But Crimson was smiling. Even an android knew that this was a sign of confidence, and therefore did not bode well for her. She assumed a defensive stance.  
  
"That's really not going to help you know" Crimson said in almost conversational tones "I don't know if you've heard of these things, but the military have." His smile widened and his voice grew cocky "They call them a "Pinch" and here's what they do." He pressed the button and dropped the tube to the floor, It landed with a dull thump. Crimson began to count under his breath "Gamma, Beta, Alpha." There was a bright light and a buzz filled the air. Yatsura froze in place.  
  
The EMP had temporarily deadened Crimsons Photon weapons as well, but that didn't matter. He jumped at Yatsura and cracked her round the side of the head with the butt of his sniper. The android fell to the floor, even after her internal systems countered the EMP's effect she didn't move.  
  
She was carried away by a pair of technicians and Crimson was declared the official victor of the match. The crowd went wild cheering and chanting Crimsons name. Crimson felt that the victory was cheapened slightly by underhand tactics, but it was all within legal parameters and he was still pleased with himself. Ryzada had nothing to worry about, but it was a shame she couldn't watch anymore. Even though she didn't like the tournaments themselves, Crimson knew she would have been proud of him for winning.  
  
Ryzada's thoughts were far from dwelling upon Crimson. Right now she feared for her own safety, Block 11, it was the farthest away from enforcer headquarters and as such was rarely patrolled, it was a haven for the criminal population of pioneer. It saddened Ryzada to know that even in this great age of technology, there was still violence and crime.  
  
The trio approached the entrance to the Shattered Shield, and Ryzada was forced to wonder, exactly how many hookers and drug dealers were on pioneer anyway?  
  
The air inside the Tavern was positively revolting. It reeked of smoke alcohol and blood. Ryzada was right, the Shattered Shield was a very unfriendly place, this was emphasized by the trend of wearing cloaks and hoods. Despite the lack of visible eyes it was obvious that the party was being stared at.  
  
Psilo wasn't fazed at all by this reception as she stepped forwards and said boldly "We aren't hookers so you can all put your eyes back where they belong."  
  
"I don't care if ya'll are whores or not! I'm just looking at yer tits!"  
  
Ryzada was acutely aware of exactly how short her shorts really were.  
  
"Ignore these idiots, the one we want to talk to is that one by the bar" Psilo whispered to her, pointing towards a black robed patron, even in this tavern full of people in black robes, this one stood out. Ryzada could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rising, she was scared, but she didn't know why.  
  
They approached the person, even the usually fiery and hot tempered Kilili was being cautious. It wasn't just Ryzada who could sense something from the person beneath the robes.  
  
Psilo was the first to speak. "A friend of mine came here to trade with you, don't deny it because I know all about the deal. They are now missing, what did you do with them." You really had to admire Psilo's bravery.  
  
"What makes you think I know anything about their disappearance?" The voice was silky and somehow had a menacing edge to it. Kilili shifted her weight, she really was uncomfortable.  
  
"You were the last person to see her, this was her last known whereabouts."  
  
"What about her last unknown whereabouts? You may want to check there."  
  
"If its unknown then we don't know where it is. So maybe you should tell us." Psilo said through gritted teeth  
  
"I think it would be more fun if you tried to find out yourself."  
  
"TELL US!" Psilo yelled. Ryzada took a step backwards and Kilili looked around nervously, this wasn't a good place to get angry.  
  
"My, aren't we touchy? The black robed stranger said "This place is only the middle, you need to find the place where your friend began and ended."  
  
"What the hell is that supposed to mean." Psilo was still angry  
  
"Have fun finding out." The figure rose to her feet "I have somewhere else to be." She began to walk out "And Psilo?"  
  
"What?" Psilo snarled  
  
"Keep your temper." A cut opened across Psilo's face, it was deep and bleeding freely. Psilo made to attack the black robed individual but was restrained by Kilili.  
  
The stranger brushed close by Ryzada on her way out, she stopped briefly.  
  
Ryzada tensed as a pair of lips brushed against her cheek and a voice in her ear whispered "We'll meet again Ryzada Ermintine, sooner than you think."  
  
There was a slight breeze and when Ryzada turned, the stranger was gone.  
  
"Well that went better than expected" Kilili said darkly "last time I spoke to her it ended in a visit to the hospital."  
  
Ryzada touched her hand to her cheek "I hope we don't have to come here again." She shivered "That was scary."  
  
Psilo nodded "We're done, now all we need to do is solve this stupid riddle we've been set, we have to "Find where Skyla began and ended" but she was born on pioneer 1, how are we supposed to find that?"  
  
"No point in thinking about it right now." Said Kilili "We should be leaving here."  
  
They walked towards the door, but as they neared the exit a large man got to his feet and grabbed Ryzada by the wrist  
  
"Yer pretty, how about you and me go somewhere more private." He leered at her  
  
Ryzada tried to pull her arm free, but the mans grip was too tight "LET GO OF ME!" she screamed "SOMEONE HELP" none of the other patrons of the bar even acknowledged her plea for help, but Kilili had. She was currently angling the point of a dagger at the mans ribs  
  
"I suggest you let my friend go" She said, summoning a surprising amount of menace for such a small person.  
  
The man grabbed Kilili by the throat and threw her backwards before she could knife him. "Shut up, I ain't scared of you midget.  
  
Kilili got up, her eyes blazing In a flash the man was suddenly looking down the barrels of a pair of mechguns "Call me that again fat man and your brain is going to be ventilated."  
  
The threat took a moment to register with the dimwitted oaf, but then realization dawn and he swung Ryzada sideways knocking her and Kilili to the floor. "I said I ain't scared of yer, yer bloody dwarf!" Kilili was back on her feet and was glowering with rage. She was done with threats "DON'T CALL ME SHORT! YOU STUPID! FAT ARSED! MONO-SYNAPTIC CRETIN!"  
  
Psilo grabbed Ryzada by the arm and dragged her out of the door "I think its time for us to make a quick escape" She said after she had pulled Ryzada to a spot approximately 20 feet away from the tavern.  
  
"But what about Kilili?" Ryzada worried "We can't just leave her there!"  
  
"I think its best we stayed out here, we're going to have to run in a while." As Psilo finished her sentence the was a loud crash and a robed drunk landed amongst the broken glass of the window he had just been thrown through.  
  
The once oppressively silent bar was now a cacophony of noise as tables were broken, bottles smashed and weapons were swung. Amongst the chaos was a diminutive ranger pummeling a lecherous and obese man into unconsciousness. A chair flew past her head and she ran towards the door, when weapons were getting involved it was time to leave.  
  
Ryzada and Psilo were waiting for her as she left the bar and the 3 of them were soon sprinting down the gigantic corridors stooped low to avoid being hit by any stray photon fire.  
  
Soon they were back at block 8, all three were heavily out of breath. It was entirely unnecessary for them to have run for the entire 2 miles back home, but none of them wished to admit to exhaustion before the others. So now they were recuperating in Psilo's apartment. It was quite a nice place, a little larger than Crimsons home, a lot less cluttered and much better decorated. Though Ryzada wasn't entirely sure about the magenta cushions.  
  
"Well that was really pointless." Psilo sat back in her chair "We found out precisely nothing and YOU!" She pointed at Kilili "felt that you had to start a bar fight."  
  
Kilili grinned "What? You wanted me to leave Ryzada with that guy?"  
  
"You could have solved it diplomatically."  
  
"Well I'm very grateful to you Kilili, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't stepped in." Ryzada said  
  
"nah forget about it, you'd probably have done the same thing I did." Kilili seemed much more relaxed and cheerful after the events at the bar.  
  
"Well whatever, now we have a stupid riddle to figure out, and I don't have a clue, can you two think of anything?" Psilo was not relaxed and cheerful  
  
"Nope" Kilili lay across the couch "What's on TV?"  
  
"Well can't think of anything." Ryzada said, looking thoughtful "But I might know someone who does."  
  
"Really?" Psilo showed immediate interest "Who?"  
  
"A friend of mine, Aurora. She's a force, it's amazing some of the things she knows."  
  
"Well it's worth a try." Psilo got to her feet "Kilili? Are you coming to see this Aurora person?"  
  
"Umm I'd love to, really I would, but I'm spending time with the TV, can't you see how good this show is?"  
  
Psilo glanced at the TV, It was a documentary on the life cycle of Rag Rappies, right now they seemed to be explaining the "reproduction" part of the cycle.  
  
"And now we see the male rappy displaying his plumage to attract a mate, and look, here comes one now." A remarkably British accent was providing the voice over.  
  
"Okay! Ryzada we're leaving now!" Psilo walked out of the door as quickly as possible, shortly followed by Ryzada. Kilili stretched across the couch and continued watching the TV.  
  
Psilo's thoughts were with her missing friend, why was nobody really helping out? How hard could it have been for that robed stranger to just tell her where Skyla was? Why the riddles?  
  
Ryzada's thoughts were similar, but she was thinking more about the stranger "We'll meet again Ryzada Ermintine, sooner than you think." How did she know her name? Why would they be meeting again? It was a meeting Ryzada was not looking forwards to. In fact she was hoping it would never happen at all. But there was something about that voice that made it very hard to believe it was telling a lie.  
  
Damn, more mysterious mystery. Ah well this fic is going to end up pretty long, but don't worry people! I have the plot totally figured out, I'm only improvising here and there, this is not going to be a fic that goes on forever and has no real point. Its just turning out to be a novel that's all hmm maybe I sell this concept to sonic team and we could have phantasy star books, or graphic novels! Damn I wish I had a friend who could draw really well. 


	14. Worst Day Ever

Well people, this is the chapter that is going to make this fic break into the next size class hurrah! I figure the more different searches it turns up under, the more people will read it. Oh and Crimson is only on the V. hard ruins pesky del-sabers. Please don't laugh, he's only level 48, Ryzada is level 76 (it took me a while to sort out tactics for falz) and I do have better weapons than the ones in this fic, Gigoboomas claw, rappy fan and Yamatos Crimson only has a stupid guilty light and a pair of hell vulcans. Oh and the dark laser.  
  
"Come in Ryzada" Aurora said, even before Ryzada had knocked.  
  
Ryzada stepped inside, followed by Psilo. "Hi Aurora, umm this is my friend- " Aurora cut her off.  
  
"Psilo, I know"  
  
"umm yeah, anyway we were wondering-" Aurora interrupted again  
  
"If I could help you to find her missing friend?"  
  
"Yes that's right, but we have a small problem-" was Aurora going to let her finish a sentence?  
  
"You have a lead, but you don't understand it, so you thought I could help you out."  
  
"Okay stop doing that" Psilo was getting irritated with the all knowing oracle act. "We need to know what this means "you need to find the place where your friend began and ended." Got any ideas?"  
  
"Yes" Aurora smiled  
  
"Care to enlighten us?"  
  
"Of course" Aurora took a sip of tea "Now Skyla is a newman yes?"  
  
"Yes but how did you know that?" Psilo asked  
  
"And she was created on pioneer 1 by your father Dr Osto?"  
  
Yes, but how do you know these things!" Psilo demanded  
  
"You'd be amazed how much you know if you think about it." Another sip of tea and a mysterious smile.  
  
"Whatever, get on with it."  
  
"Well, as a newman, Skyla was obviously cloned from a mix of genetic data." "GET TO THE POINT" the conversation was quickly getting on Psilo's nerves, she couldn't take anymore delay.  
  
"Please Aurora, just tell us what we need to know." Ryzada asked politely  
  
"Ahh please, the magic word, you really should have thought of that." Aurora's comment was directed at Psilo.  
  
Psilo was battling to keep her temper under control as Aurora continued "Anyway, it seems to me that if Skyla was made in a lab, that was her beginning, so therefore her ending must also be in a lab."  
  
"Right, thank you Aurora, we'll be going now." Psilo got up to leave.  
  
"Sure you wouldn't like to stay for a cup of tea?"  
  
"No." Psilo dragged Ryzada out of the door.  
  
"Why were you being so rude?" Ryzada asked on the walk back to Psilo's place "She did help us."  
  
"Not really, there are five different labs on pioneer, and besides I have very little patience for forces, they think they are so much better than everyone else, they lord it over us "lesser mortals" and all because they know how to sling a fireball or two."  
  
Ryzada tried to think of Alice "lording it" over everyone, It wasn't an image that worked terribly well. "Don't you think you are being a little prejudiced Psilo?" she was a little concerned regarding her new team mates attitude towards forces "I know a lot of forces and they aren't all like that, It's just Aurora has really bad taste in movies."  
  
"Ryzada? Do me a favor will you? Don't introduce me to any more of your friends." After that there was an awkward silence between them, it lasted until the reached the apartment.  
  
"So? What did you two find out?" Kilili greeted them.  
  
Psilo threw herself into an armchair "We found out not to ask Ryzada's friends for help" She said huffily.  
  
"No I mean about Skyla, do we know where she is?"  
  
"Aurora thinks she is at a lab, fat lot of good that does us, we have five to choose from."  
  
"Well there has to be some way of narrowing it down, doesn't there? Ryzada suggested tentatively.  
  
"yup" Kilili looked pleased with herself, "There are only two that she could be at."  
  
"And how did you arrive at that conclusion?" Psilo was still annoyed from the meeting with Aurora.  
  
"Well." Kilili began, counting them off on her fingers "Dr montague is a weapons developer, so he wouldn't want Skyla for anything."  
  
"Makes sense." Psilo was forced to agree  
  
"Dr Philmans lab went bust last week, Dr Ryan's Is on the other side of pioneer, so that leaves Dr robinson and Dr Ermintine. And I have no idea what those two are actually doing right now."  
  
"Why not?" Psilo demanded  
  
"No news reporters have come back from either lab"  
  
"Well that's pretty ominous."  
  
"We should check Ermintines lab." Ryzada said confidently  
  
"Why?" Psilo asked  
  
"Well he's, weird, and a lot of his ideas are pretty crazy."  
  
"You think it's likely that he would have taken someone captive?"  
  
"Skyla's a Newman, so yes he probably would."  
  
"Right, it's settled then." Kilili was unusually cheerful "We're off to the mad scientists evil lair?"  
  
"Kilili?" Psilo sounded a little annoyed "What have you been doing?"  
  
"Ohhh well I found this chocolate bar, it was just lying around in a secret compartment of a locked drawer." Kilili was extremely happy  
  
"Great I leave you alone for half an hour and you steal my emergency supplies. Do you know how hard it is to get chocolate?"  
  
"Nope and I don't care" Kilili jumped to her feet "Now let's get moving!"  
  
Psilo and Ryzada both sighed and followed the hyper-active Kilili down the corridors.  
  
Crimson looked around his cupboard with suspicion, something was not right. He scanned the table looking for anything out of place. That handgun, The barrel was pointing in the wrong direction, and his flamer, it was missing a little fuel. Crimson burst out laughing and left the cupboard, locking it behind him.  
  
"What's so funny?" Alice asked, curious as to the cause of this amusement.  
  
"Nothing, nothing" Crimson waved his hand dismissively, then cracked up laughing again.  
  
"No, really what's so funny. Tell me!"  
  
"Tatsu went into the cupboard didn't he?"  
  
"Yup" Alice smiled  
  
"Did it work?"  
  
"If by "work" you mean scorched the opposite wall, then yes it worked." Alice hid her laughter behind her hand. Crimson was struck by how attractively girlish the gesture was, it was obvious why Tatsu liked Alice so much, of course Crimson liked girls who were a little older, 8 years old was about right for him. Crimson smiled inwardly, 19 years old and his major romantic interest was half his age, maybe he should run for government office?  
  
"Where is Tatsu anyway?" Crimson asked "I'm a little annoyed that I can't laugh directly at him."  
  
"Oh he went out to look around the hotel, he should be back before dinner"  
  
That was obvious, Tatsu never missed a meal, especially not when Alice was the one cooking.  
  
As Predicted he got back approximately an hour before Dinner, he also had with him, a few strange objects.  
  
"Where did you get those?" Crimson asked  
  
"There's a row of vending machines a few corridors down." Tatsu continued to empty his pockets.  
  
"Did you have to get something from all of them?"  
  
"Well its not like we're going to be coming here again for a while" Tatsu shrugged "And you'd be amazed at some of the things those machines sold."  
  
"Example?"  
  
"Beer and underwear?"  
  
"I see." Crimson nodded "But I'm really surprised that you could use those machines Tatsu."  
  
"Why?" Tatsu's tone was one of suspicion  
  
"I don't know, I guess I just thought that maybe you'd have developed a phobia of buttons and machinery by now."  
  
"Ha ha, how very funny" Tatsu said sarcastically "Now if you don't mind I'm going to take my beer, my underwear and my assorted plastic novelties and I'm going to go to my room."  
  
He got up to walk away. "NO! TATSU LOOK OUT!" Alice yelled from the kitchen doorway.  
  
Tatsu jumped backwards "What? What is it?"  
  
"Oh sorry, my mistake, it's just a remote control." Alice smiled sweetly  
  
"Will you stop that!"  
  
"Maybe if you ask nicer" Alice stuck her tongue out and went back into the kitchen.  
  
Tatsu deposited his newly acquired items in his room and sat in front of the TV, he aimlessly flicked though the channels, then without warning the Remote shorted out with a loud cracking sound, making Tatsu jump. He caught sight of Crimson working at the table, a smile across his face. Why was everyone picking on him today? His pager beeped.  
  
ARENA 6, 9PM,RX-12, ARENA MINED  
  
Tatsu sighed, 3 hours from now he would be fighting an android in a mine field. What had he done to annoy god today? Things couldn't possibly get- he stopped himself mid-thought. That was a close one, completion of that sentence would have no doubt worsened his situation.  
  
"Hey Tatsu! Uhh your brand isn't working right now, I sort of did something to it and I don't know what." Crimson yelled from the table.  
  
CURSE YOU GOD! WHY DOST THOU MOCK ME SO! Well, Tatsu thought extremely down heartened, by law of numbers, somebody out there was having a worse day than him. That poor person had Tatsu's deepest sympathy.  
  
Magus added another dent to the small collection of boot prints he was creating in the wall. Today was going fantastically badly. Mery was back, so that was bad for a start. He had forgotten to collect the scythe, so that was worse, how could an android possibly forget anything anyway? And now rumors were spreading regarding the fact that he and Mei were sleeping together.  
  
"Aww cheer up Magus, its not that bad" Mei attached herself to his arm. "You're still the bestest fighter out there, you don't need any weapons, you're the most amazing gladiator I've ever seen." Magus felt a little better.  
  
"Have you only recently recovered from being blind?" Mery asked. Magus felt a little worse.  
  
"Ignore him" Mei stuck her tongue out at Mery "It'll all be fine, I just know it." She smiled up at Magus "and you get to prove it tomorrow!"  
  
"Why? What's going on tomorrow?" Magus asked  
  
"Ohh umm didn't you know? You have a match."  
  
"I haven't been paged about it, when did you find out?"  
  
"Oh you won't have been paged silly, It's just that the pit fights start tomorrow don't they?"  
  
"Uhh, Mei?" Magus said gently "I'm not entered in the pit fights."  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
Magus chuckled "Trust me, I'd know if I'd signed up for something like that."  
  
"Umm would you know if somebody else signed you up?"  
  
"Mei?" Magus said slowly "What exactly did you do?"  
  
Mei's lower lip started to tremble and her eyes glistened with impending tears "I'm soooo sorry Magus but I wrote your name down for the pit fights and I thought you would be happy because of the prizes and stuff and if you did well enough you would get to be interviewed by Chisato but I shouldn't have done it because you don't want to enter and now you're mad at me! Mei burst into tears and started sobbing against Magus's arm.  
  
Magus tensed. Oh god, she was crying, what should he do? He had no experience with this! Oh why couldn't she just stop crying?  
  
"Uhh it's okay Mei, I do want to enter the pit fights, I just forgot to sign up, so it was really a good job that you did it for me." He said panicking  
  
Mei looked at him, her eyes red and puffy, tears still running down her cheeks. "R-really?" She said, her voice wavering.  
  
Magus smiled at her reassuringly "Really"  
  
Mei sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve "So you aren't mad at me?"  
  
"Of course not Mei"  
  
"Yay I did good" Mei hugged him tightly and skipped round the room, leaving Magus to wonder what the hell just happened. Had he just been manipulated by this little girl?  
  
Mery accurately simulated the noise of a whip "She really has you trained doesn't she Magus?"  
  
Dammit! Today officially made it into Magus's diary as the worst day ever.  
  
Okay very little actually happened here plotwise, but who cares all that much? I promise to do more plot advancement next chapter. I haven't slept in over 18 hours, I need to go to bed. Oh and I also promise to start doing serious bits, I've been joking around a little recently (a bit of it was in-jokes so don't worry bout it) 


	15. All I Need

Ryzada can now stroll thru the ultimate forest, and she found Crimson a H&S25 JUSTICE. God I wish I had a YASMINKOV. Pity whitills are naff at finding rifles.  
  
Tatsu was feeling a little better about his day. He always did after one of Alice's meals, that girl was such a good cook. Also his brand wasn't broken anymore. For once, and possibly the only time in living memory, Crimson had successfully altered a weapon. Tatsu hadn't tried it out yet. But Crimson was certain that there was at least a 50% boost in the weapons power. Tatsu was extremely dubious as to the truth of this statement. Also Alice had promised to stop teasing him about his mistake that morning, so that was good too. However the fact remained that in 1 hours time he would be fighting in a mine field. He was currently preparing his equipment.  
  
Mates, check. Brand, check. Handgun, check. Trap visions, check. MAG.., where the hell was it? Where had it gone? He'd left it right here! Was it possible that his careful organization of his equipment was flawed? No, that was impossible.  
  
"Alice? Where's my MAG?" He yelled slightly panicked.  
  
"Oh umm I had it Tatsu. It's on the table." Alice called back from her room  
  
"What were you doing with Rudra?"  
  
"Umm they looked a little dirty so I cleaned them up a bit"  
  
"MAGs don't need to be cleaned you know, they don't have such thing as vanity." Tatsu mentally reached out to his MAG and as the connection was established they lifted from the table to float above his shoulders.  
  
"I know" Alice called cheerily "But Kyou always seems to appreciate a quick dust and polish."  
  
Tatsu smiled, the attachment between a hunter and their MAG really was quite strange and remarkable. Rudra did actually seem a little more cheerful than usual.  
  
"Well I'm going now, either I'll come back victorious or you can visit me in hospital"  
  
"Take care, I'll wait up for you" said Alice  
  
Tatsu almost skipped out of the door. She'd wait up for him, he sighed happily, it really was great living with Alice. But he'd been living with her for weeks already, at his apartment. Maybe it was too big? There wasn't any real sense of living together. Living in the small hotel quarters was nice, they were never more than ten meters apart. He arrived at the arena about half an hour before the match was due to begin, so he wandered in to the preparation room and purchased an energy drink from one of the vending machines.  
  
"Those don't really work you know, the chemicals just trick your brain into thinking you have more energy." A voice spoke from a shadowy corner of the room.  
  
"Really?" Tatsu eyed the drink suspiciously "wouldn't it be easier to just add a lot of sugar and caffeine to it?"  
  
"Not really, sugar is a controlled substance remember, and caffeine is bad for you" the voice answered  
  
"Oh, yeah I guess." Tatsu suddenly realized how strange it was that there was somebody in here with him, he spun round "Hey are you RX-12?"  
  
The shadowy figure stood up and stepped out of the darkness, revealing himself to be a hunter, this was easily guessed from his blue and black armor. A mask prevented Tatsu from seeing his face. But it was obvious that this was no android.  
  
"As a matter of fact, no I'm not RX-12, I'm Chimpus Nuclear. You'll be meeting RX-12 later. However I am your opponent for this match, so the best of luck to you." Chimpus said in crisp tones.  
  
"But my page said that RX-12 was my opponent!" Tatsu complained "What happened? Did they malfunction? Are you replacing them?"  
  
"No and no, you will find out exactly what is going on once the match begins" the same crisp tones.  
  
"What? You mean I don't get full details until the match starts?" Tatsu protested "How am I supposed to prepare myself?"  
  
"Part of the plan is that you don't get a chance to prepare. It helps if you leave your adversary in the dark. Besides if you were a true warrior you would be ready for anything." The "properness" of this person was really starting to get on Tatsu's nerves.  
  
"Fine, you're not the only person keeping secrets you know" Tatsu said, opening his drink and swallowing a mouthful. He sat down and stared moodily at Chimpus. Tatsu's attempts at mind games were really not all too impressive. Chimpus reclined in his chair, not bothered in the slightest as to what Tatsu's "secrets" might be, RX-12 would sort them out.  
  
Magus spun his nunchaku with one hand, flipped them behind him and caught them with the other, he spun them twice more, flipped them under and over his leg and then caught both ends with his left hand. Mei clapped from the doorway. Magus spun round "MEI! Err what are you doing here?"  
  
"Teehee, I'm only watching, what are you doing anyway Magus?"  
  
"Umm weapons practice, it's stupid but I've done it every day since before I can remember."  
  
"Ohh, well it looks really cool, with all the spinning and flicking, kinda like dancing, only not girly."  
  
Magus sent up a silent prayer thanking his master for forcing such rigorous training upon him "Thanks Mei, you can watch me anytime you want." He smiled at her.  
  
Mei giggled "I do anyway, but thank you for the permission, ohh yeah, I was really here to ask you something, how long are you supposed to cook pasta for?"  
  
"About seven minutes, why?"  
  
"Oh" Mei's face fell "Umm dinner may be a little undercooked today"  
  
"That's not a problem Mei, I like my pasta a little al dente." He didn't really, but it was either say that, or try to cheer Mei up after she started crying, a task he really wasn't up to.  
  
"Okay" Mei grinned "Dinner will be on the table by the time you're done changing."  
  
"I wasn't going to change"  
  
Mei wrinkled her nose "Oh yes you are mister! I'm not going to sit at the table with you while you're all sweaty."  
  
"Fine, I'll put a different tee-shirt on" Magus sighed  
  
"Okay, I'll be waiting at the table" Mei blew him a kiss and then disappeared, skipping and humming to herself.  
  
Magus mopped the sweat from his brow with a hand towel. That girl is always so full of energy, he chuckled to himself. Then he thought more deeply about it. She watched him anyway? But she hadn't seen him practice before, what had she been watching him do? And why was she watching him? A terrifying thought passed through Magus's mind, did Mei like him? Well obviously she liked him, but did she like, like him?  
  
Magus was extremely troubled that night, and this had nothing to do with the crunchy pasta they had for dinner. He tried to focus his mind like his master taught him. He had to be prepared for the fights tomorrow. But more and more his thoughts flickered back to the small girl asleep on his chest. Her lips moved silently as she dreamed , her hand squeezing against his arm slightly. Magus couldn't help thinking how cute she was. What was she dreaming about? Eventually Magus drifted off to sleep, despite his minds protestations that he hadn't meditated properly.  
  
Mei ran down the corridor, she didn't know why she was running, but she was dimly aware of shadowy figures behind her. She had to keep running. The light flickered with every step she took. On. Off. On. Off. There was a door in the distance, Mei had never seen this door before, but it was familiar with it. On, Off, On. If she could just reach the other side of that door she would be safe, she was on the wrong side.  
  
She reached the door, but it would not open. They shadows were getting closer. She banged her small fists against the door in desperation. It had to open, it had to! The shadows were near now, very near. Yet she couldn't see them, no matter how close they came, they remained just shadows. Off. The lights didn't come back on. They would never come back on. A voice sounded in her head.  
  
"Reincarnation goes forever."  
  
The light was gone. It would never come back. Mei was alone in the dark. Alone forever. Even the shadows had left her. She was alone.  
  
Mei awoke with a start, there were tears running down her face. She felt something warm rise and fall beneath her. Magus. She leaned in closer until she could feel his gentle breaths against her face, drying her tears. She hugged him a little tighter to herself and closed her eyes. She wasn't alone. Magus was here, that was all she needed right now.  
  
A short chapter I know, but the next one will be longer, I just felt that now was a good time to end. This was my attempt at something a little more serious. Good no? 


	16. All I want

Sorry about not updating, I woulda done it earlier but the PC was formatted when I was almost done and it took a while until I could be bothered to re- write this chapter, but after playing FF: crystal chronicles (its not even out here yet ) I feel a lot better and so, here is the chapter.  
  
Tatsu stared at his opponent, and Chimpus stared right back, neither one moved. Then the klaxon sounded, the match was officially underway. Tatsu summoned his brand to his hand and slashed at the air. There was something different about his weapon, what was it? It was pink! Bright pink! Damn it! This was the last time Crimson ever got to touch any of Tatsu's weapons.  
  
Chimpus chuckled to himself, so Tatsu had a buster? Nice weapon, not that it would do him any good at all. He pulled a control device from his pocket and flipped the clear plastic lid to reveal a single, red button. He pressed it and a deep rumbling emanated from beneath the arena almost shaking the two combatants from their feet. Sand poured into a rectangular hole that was steadily expanding. There was a clunking of gears and from the hole rose a beast unlike any Tatsu had ever seen before.  
  
The thing was huge, at least 14 feet tall and it looked to be truly fearsome. Light glinted off of its polished hide and an eerie glow radiated from its eyes and mouth. Miscellaneous weapons were strapped to its huge arms and a few other unrecognized objects were seemingly fused into other parts of the creature's body. It was then that Tatsu noticed something odd. Its stomach was hanging open and Chimpus was climbing into it. This was no organic creature. Tatsu scanned his memory. Crimson was obsessed with these things, what were they called? Oh yes, Mechanical Armored Suits. But they didn't exist. Nobody had ever built one and yet here one was, pointing the barrel of a heavy machine gun at him. Oh...damn.  
  
Tatsu ran as fast as he could and dived behind a rock photon fire impacting upon the ground where his feet had been just moments before. Chimpus' voice taunted him as he hid.  
  
"So Tatsu? How do you like RX-12? A rather useful little gadget wouldn't you say?"  
  
"There is no way that thing is legal." Tatsu yelled from behind his rock  
  
"You'd be surprised what you can get away with" Chimpus' tone was smug "Believe it or not, this counts as a weapon."  
  
With that, he fired a round globe of photonic energy, which all but vaporized the rock that Tatsu was using for cover.  
  
Tatsu ran to the next likely area of cover, his MAG deftly catching any photon fire that came his way. As he reached the relative safety of the next rock he heard a mine activate right next to him. Tchwing  
  
With the fast thinking that had saved his life on more than one occasion, Tatsu stood up and grabbed the mine from where it floated and hurled it at the giant mech'. He ducked down again in order to avoid the return fire.  
  
"So you like to play with bombs do you?" Chimpus once more mocked his opponent "How about you play with this one?"  
  
There was a dull thud as something was fired, followed by a clang as a metal ball, approximately 10 inches in diameter, landed 5 foot away from Tatsu's position. He attempted to kick it away and was rewarded by a sharp pain in his toe. This thing was heavier than it looked! But Tatsu was stronger than he looked, thanks to the cyborg arm that was hidden under his clothes. He picked the ball up, even though it caused some pain as it pulled on the connection between the robotic limb and the flesh of Tatsu's shoulder. He bowled it underarm and it rolled across the ground, coming to a stop by the foot of the armored suit. It detonated, causing a deafening bang and a small fire. Not to mention damage to the mech'  
  
"Left foot is damaged, mobility reduced 20%, turning reduced 40%" A pleasant female voice informed Chimpus. He already knew that, stupid computer. With another globe of photons he destroyed Tatsu's new hiding place. As an after thought he fired shots at the other large rocks in the arena. This also removed a lot of mines.  
  
"Caution, heat level exceeding recommended levels." The computer stated in its annoyingly calm way. How could it be so calm? This was not the way it was supposed to be going, this was meant to be an easy victory.  
  
Tatsu noticed that the mech' was not firing upon him, despite the fact that he was open and vulnerable. He looked around to see if he could spot more shelter, but every likely site that he saw was struck by a cannon blast and was rendered useless. Something caught Tatsu's eye, the mech's left foot was sparking, it was damaged, so maybe? He ran towards the mech' and dodging the incoming fire, he sprinted to the left side of it.  
  
What was this hunter doing? Chimpus smashed his fists into the panel in frustration. If Tatsu would just play fair, this would be a snap, just like all the other matches before this one.  
  
"Ready all weapons" He ordered the computer "I want all missiles loaded and the gauss rifle charged."  
  
"Affirmative"  
  
This will sort that little bastard out, Chimpus thought to himself. Actually, where was Tatsu? He couldn't see him anymore, was he hiding somewhere that the photon cannon hadn't destroyed? Chimpus checked the radar. What? That couldn't be right! According to the radar, Tatsu was right on top of them.  
  
Tatsu slashed at the already damaged foot, intent on causing as much damage as he could Admittedly this was not much, as his weapon was only cutting long furrows into the metal. But still he hacked away, remembering Crimsons bitter complaints about the impracticalities of a mech'  
  
"Sure they look cool and can blow a lot of things up, but take out either leg and the things are useless."  
  
The buster was striking deeper and deeper with each slash. He was almost there, the pneumatics and the wiring that made up the center of the huge limb. Suddenly the foot was drawn back. Tatsu groaned as he realized that Chimpus had located him and Tatsu was certain what was going to happen next.  
  
Chimpus smiled to himself as Tatsu flew across the arena. Football really was a fun game wasn't it?  
  
Tatsu landed on his back, the impact knocking the wind out of him. He raised his left arm defensively in a feeble attempt to ward off the incoming fire. Three shots buried themselves into the cybernetic arm. Strictly speaking, Tatsu felt no pain, but he thought he did, simply because he was expecting it to hurt. The mech' began to move from its position. It very definitely had a limp, Tatsu noted with a smile. It stopped mere feet away from him, one foot raised, ready to come down and end Tatsu's life. Thoughts flashed through his mind as his death approached.  
  
Alice was waiting for him, she said she would. What would happen if he didn't come back? Would she cry at his funeral? He had a sudden image of Alice dressed in black, crying beside a coffin. No, this wasn't allowed to happen.  
  
If he were out of the tournament, Alice would be alone with Crimson for the weeks it would last. She already liked him, everyone liked Crimson. Another image, this one was of Alice in white, standing at an altar. No, he couldn't let anyone steal her.  
  
And then he thought of Alice as an old woman, living alone, her once beautiful face drawn and haggard. An aged picture hanging on the wall of four hunters in their prime and a buster left unused on the mantelpiece. No. No. NO! None of this was going to happen! Tatsu Littlewing would not be defeated this day or any other! His eyes flashed an angry red and he leapt to his feet.  
  
With inhuman speed he dodged the falling foot of RX-12 and drove his buster deep into the side of it. His efforts were rewarded with a leaking of pneumatic fluid that pooled within the machine. Gathering his fury into a tight ball, he expelled his wrath through the palm of his hand. The foie technique ignited the fluid and destroyed the circuitry inside.  
  
"DAMMIT!" Chimpus was furious, "We had him!"  
  
"Left foot has been destroyed, mobility is at 0%" The same calm voice  
  
"We can't move?!?" Chimpus once again smashed his fist into the panel in front of him "Lock all missiles on target "Tatsu" Fire on my mark" Chimpus sat back "Mark!"  
  
Tatsu could see the missiles hurtling towards him, they didn't matter. He was unstoppable because he couldn't afford to lose. His future with Alice depended on this fight. Instead of running away from the missiles, Tatsu did the unexpected and ran towards them. He'd picked this trick up from Elisel. One of her interminable lectures on how to survive on the planet.  
  
"Garanz" her voice was as clear as if she were right next to him "They look big and tough, but they aren't. The thing is, their own missiles can be used to hurt them! Just run round the other side and the stupid thing shoots itself. Tatsu? Are you listening to me? Good, next, the sinow blue."  
  
Tatsu heard the satisfying noises of explosions upon metal and smiled inwardly. He never thought he would have been grateful for his lengthy and somewhat painful tutelage at the hands of Elisel, but for today, he was.  
  
"Warning! Warning! Critical damage, critical damage." The computer still wasn't panicking at all  
  
"ARGH!" Chimpus screamed at nobody in particular "What is the status of the gauss rifle!"  
  
"Gauss rifle is fully charged"  
  
"Lock target "Tatsu""  
  
"Target "Tatsu" is too close for the safe firing of the Gauss rifle"  
  
"Just fire the bloody thing!"  
  
"Affirmative"  
  
A high-pitched keening filled the air. Tatsu looked around, searching for its source. The armored suits right arm was glowing and particles of energy were being drawn towards it. The glow increased in intensity. This time Tatsu did run away from it, not that it would help.  
  
Sturdy girder-like struts erupted from the mech's back slamming into the ground and the right arm locked into place, all that remained moving was the wrist.  
  
"Charge sequence completed, Support sequence completed, Target locked. Gauss rifle ready to fire upon your command."  
  
Chimpus rubbed his hands together "FIRE!"  
  
Thousands of tiny electro magnets were activated and a single, minute ball bearing was released, It struck the first magnet, knocking a slightly larger bearing into the second magnet. The chain reaction reached its ultimate end and a sonic boom threatened to burst the eardrums of everyone in the stadium. A vast cloud of dust hovered in the air and Tatsu was nowhere to be seen.  
  
The mech' toppled over, the damage caused by the short range firing rendering it incapable of standing and Chimpus emerged from the cockpit with a look of elation on his face.  
  
"I did it!" he exalted "I won!"  
  
"Oh really?" a quiet voice issued from behind him. Chimpus turned around slowly.  
  
"How could you still be alive? You should have been obliterated." Chimpus gaped.  
  
Tatsu's eyes blazed red and a yellow aura surrounded him "It's amazing what a MAG can do if you treat them well." Rudra chirped in agreement "Now draw your weapon and we'll finish this like real hunters should."  
  
Chimpus drew his Gigush and charged forwards, jumping into the air and bringing the weapon down with a heavy swing. Tatsu blocked the blow with two fingers, using the forearm of his left hand he snapped the blade cleanly in half. The gigush fell from nerveless fingers.  
  
"Wha-what kind of freak are you!" Chimpus stammered, eyes wide with fear.  
  
Tatsu advanced on his foe and grabbed him by the throat "The kind you shouldn't ever be screwing with."  
  
Chimpus drew a mechgun and fired a volley of shots directly at Tatsu's face, it didn't even faze him. Chimpus felt a sharp pain in his gut and looked down to see a photon blade sticking through his midsection. Tatsu let him go and he collapsed to the floor. The emergency teleportation device activated, warping Chimpus directly to the medical center.  
  
"And after this electrifying battle Tatsu Littlewing is victorious! What an upset! And an amazing display of power! Tatsu has passed his preliminaries and now the true face of the tournament awaits him, will he be as successful?"  
  
Tatsu heard none of this, as his MAG's power was drained by the strain placed on it in the final moments of the fight. Without Rudra's support to keep him going, Tatsu collapsed to the sand. The last thing he heard before blacking out was the wild cheering of the crowd.  
  
He regained consciousness in the med center. Every muscle in his body was on fire and his head was throbbing. A familiar voice intruded upon his pain.  
  
"You complete and utter bastard!"  
  
Tatsu looked over to the bed next to his. It was Chimpus, his middle heavily bandaged.  
  
"I won because I'm the better fighter, even with a huge robot thing you couldn't beat me."  
  
"Do you have any idea what you've done?"  
  
"No, not really" Tatsu shrugged his indifference  
  
"My girlfriend is going to kill me! Just one more fight and I would have been guaranteed a prize! But no, you had to come and ruin it."  
  
"You entered in the tournament because your girlfriend made you?" Tatsu was surprised seeing as Ryzada was close to tears because of Crimson entering.  
  
"Well yeah." Chimpus sounded a little embarrassed "But you don't understand at all, she's very high maintenance. I mean if I stop giving her all the things that she wants she'll just find somebody else who will."  
  
"Chimpus" Tatsu said pityingly "You have been totally and utterly whipped by an absolute gold digger."  
  
"I've been thinking that myself for a while now." Chimpus admitted, "Why did you enter the tournament?"  
  
"Oh you know, big prizes, public adoration, lasting fame, that kind of thing."  
  
"Really?" Chimpus sounded dubious  
  
"No" Tatsu confessed, "I entered to try and impress a girl."  
  
"What's she like?"  
  
"Small, pretty, smart, an amazing chef and she can handle herself in a fight too" Tatsu sighed "She's always happy and she has a smile that lights up the room."  
  
Chimpus laughed, then clutched his hand to his middle at the pain laughing caused "You have it bad Tatsu, you have it really really bad. I'm guessing she is the cute little schoolgirl type?" Tatsu nodded "Well at least you have better taste in girls than I do"  
  
"If you don't mind me asking" Tatsu said tentatively "Why don't you look for a new girlfriend?"  
  
"Well umm, I, uhh" Chimpus struggled to find a reason "Screw it, you're right, I'm going to find myself a new girl! One who doesn't steal my money, shirts and razor blades and who doesn't throw away my porn!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Uhh ignore that last past would you?"  
  
"Be happy too" Tatsu muttered and rolled over to catch some sleep. He suddenly noticed the clock beside the bed. 1am? Oh my god! Was Alice still waiting for him to come back? She'd be so worried about him. Tatsu leapt out of bed and ignored protesting muscles as grabbed his equipment and raced off out of the door, Rudra struggling to keep up.  
  
He finally arrived at the hotel room exhausted from the long run. He opened the door as quietly as possible and slipped inside. Alice wasn't there to greet him. He knew it, she'd got sick of waiting for him and had gone to bed, she was going to be pretty mad at him. Tatsu sighed and neatly deposited his things in the small area he had set aside for them.  
  
He stepped into the kitchen to grab something to eat, he was hungry after that fight and hadn't eaten in almost five hours. This was a long time as far as Tatsu was concerned.  
  
There was a small figure asleep at the table. Alice. She had waited for him. All night by the look of things. Even in her sleep she looked radiant, but there were small hints of a worried expression on her face. Tatsu placed his hand on her shoulder and gently roused her from her slumber. Alice opened her eyes and with a sleepy smile looked up at Tatsu.  
  
"I knew you'd be okay." She leaned across and hugged him. Tatsu flushed a light shade of red and after a moments hesitation he hugged her back.  
  
"You really stayed up all night waiting for me?"  
  
Alice broke the hug and nodded in response to Tatsu's question "Of course, I was really worried about you Tatsu."  
  
"But you weren't when I went to my other matches." Alice looked down "Well umm I knew that this one was going to be really tough for you."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Well it was your qualification match so of course it was going to be hard"  
  
"Wait a moment. Qualification match?" Tatsu was confused  
  
"Well, umm you see, up until now you weren't really in the tournament, but now that you have got this far you are an official participant."  
  
"So what's the diffrence?"  
  
"Well now you're guaranteed to get prize money no matter what happens, a loss doesn't mean that you are instantly out of the tournament. Oh and you aren't allowed to leave now."  
  
"WHAT!"  
  
"Shhh not so loud, you'll wake Crimson up" Alice leaned in and whispered conspiratorially "and he is really grumpy if you wake him up."  
  
Tatsu smiled "Well I guess it won't be so bad, being stuck here with you."  
  
Alice giggled "You're lucky, you have me for company. Who do I have?"  
  
"You could always make friends with the wall" Tatsu suggested  
  
"Well at least the wall won't be gone all night and leave me here to worry about it!"  
  
"I'm sorry okay! Really I'll make it up to you."  
  
"You're so sweet when you're being dumb." Alice giggled again. She rose from the table and standing on tip toes gave Tatsu a peck on the cheek "well goodnight, it's a busy day tomorrow so get some sleep. We have to cheer Crimson on in the pit fights remember. She swept out of the door and went to bed.  
  
Tatsu stood there for a few moments trying to make sense of what just happened. She thought he was sweet! She even kissed him! He felt like composing a small song and dance in memory of the event, but instead he kept his celebrations on the inside. How could he have possibly worried about her ending up with Crimson? He was on top of the world, and yet that annoying little voice known as pessimism spoke in the back of his mind "Now all you have to do is not screw this up like you do everything else."  
  
But this time pessimism was drowned out by confidence. There was nothing that could possibly go wrong. A girl actually liked him back, he was on his way to becoming a minor celebrity and nothing really bad had happened to him all day. This was everything he had ever wanted.  
  
Next chapter is with Ryzada Psilo and Kilili (with Asrith making an appearance) Sorry that Raven has disappeared (I tried to talk to him about his matches and how he was doing in general, but he refused to talk to me) but don't worry, he will be back. And updates should return to their normal spacings, sorry to make you wait a week for this one. Won't happen again I swear. 


	17. All Your Friends Are Mental Patients

Well it's 2am and I haven't slept for about 30 hours now. You know what that means? That's right! Now is the ideal time for me to be writing. Nothing beats writing when caffeine is the only reason you are even conscious. For some reason I can't write at all during daylight hours.  
  
The trio of hunters jogged through the light rain on their way to Ermintine enterprises the laboratory owned by the eccentric and somewhat disturbing Asrith Ermintine. Kilili was complaining loudly.  
  
"It's bad enough we have to go sneaking into a lab that we know nothing about, but do we have to do it in the rain?"  
  
"Yes" Psilo snapped, "Now shut up"  
  
"But I'm wet and cold and wet too!" Also she was coming down from the sugar high and was feeling pretty tired.  
  
"You said wet twice" Ryzada politely pointed out  
  
"Well that's because I'm twice as wet as I am cold"  
  
"Whatever" Psilo was not impressed by this logic "We're almost there anyway so you can dry off then."  
  
"What? When we're lurking around in a tightly guarded lab that we aren't meant to be in? Kilili snorted, "I don't see why it has to rain anyway, this is an artificial environment!" Kilili continued to complain about the unfairness of her situation right up until the moment they reached the lab. After that she had recovered from the sugar crash she had experienced.  
  
The lab was a tall building, dark and ominous. There was a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning lit the artificial sky.  
  
Kilili looked up at the foreboding building with its barred windows and stone gargoyles. There was another flash of lightning and the rain was coming down heavier than before.  
  
"Could this place get any creepier? It's like a movie, with all the stormy weather and the dark surroundings, couldn't we do this in the daytime?"  
  
"No Kilili we're doing it now because it's easier to sneak in the dark." Psilo readied her weapons for a break in.  
  
"Asrith knows we're coming, so we won't need to sneak about" Ryzada sighed  
  
"How do you know that?" Psilo regarded her suspiciously "Because all of this" Ryzada paused as another flash of lightning lit the area "Has been set up to look like a movie, as Kilili said"  
  
"I knew it" Kilili nodded  
  
Ryzada continued, "Asrith likes old horror movies, they're his favorite ones, so he prepared all this just so he could have a bit of fun."  
  
"You know this much about him?" Psilo was still suspicious  
  
"Well I guess you could say he's a friend of mine, I was born at these labs."  
  
"Just as I thought" Psilo exclaimed, pointing a finger at Ryzada.  
  
"What?"  
  
"All your friends are mental patients!"  
  
"That's not true!" Ryzada protested, then she thought about Crimson and his collection of electrical components, some of which were entirely useless. Then she thought of Tatsu who arranged everything by type and alphabetical order. "Well okay, some of them are a little odd but look at your friends!"  
  
Psilo looked over at Kilili who was readying a rifle that was longer than she was tall. Kilili grinned over at the two as she shouldered the weapon.  
  
"There is nothing wrong with any of my friends." Psilo lied.  
  
The three of them walked cautiously up to the door, which swung open before Psilo could begin her attempts at hacking through the electronic lock. As soon as they were inside the door slammed shut behind them, causing Kilili and Ryzada to jump a little. Psilo was not scared in the slightest.  
  
"Pathetic parlor tricks." She shrugged "I hope the good doctor has something a little more impressive for us."  
  
A Holographic image of a figure reclining in a chair appeared in front of them. It was Asrith, this was obvious from the lab coat. He also seemed to have acquired some dark sunglasses from somewhere. One of his hands absently stroked the robotic cat that sat contentedly in his lap.  
  
"Ahh ladies I have been waiting for you." The hologram said speaking in a rich, clear voice. "For those of you who haven't met me, I am doctor Asrith Ermintine, Inventor, genius and your host for this evening."  
  
"Decided against torturing us with that horrific accent of yours?" Ryzada said scathingly  
  
"Ah that, yes that wasn't working out you see, I believe this new image is a much better side of myself to be presenting to the world, wouldn't you agree?"  
  
Ryzada rolled her eyes "Next thing you know he will be using words like "exquisite" and making terrible puns."  
  
"Delightful as this is, I have other matters to attend to. I hope your new playmates will keep you entertained." With that the hologram disappeared.  
  
"WAIT!" Psilo yelled "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH SKYLA!" There was no answer. "Dammit" Psilo kicked the wall.  
  
"What did he mean by playmates?" Kilili wondered  
  
Ryzada groaned, "He was waiting for one of us to say that."  
  
Two doors appeared, one on either side of the small room and from out of them stepped a pair of metal monstrosities. They were hulking masses of armor strapped onto a bipedal beast. Through the gaps on the armor Ryzada could see deep purple fur and she recognized the gait of these abominations. Gigoboomas.  
  
She drew her daggers grasping each hilt firmly "Asrith you idiot, what have you done." She muttered as she ran forwards.  
  
Psilo and Kilili readied their weapons too. Psilo drawing twin mechguns and Kilili aimed at one of the creatures down the barrel of her rifle. They both opted to fire at the one on the right, leaving Ryzada to hold her own against the left. A hail of small photon bursts streaked across the room, punctuated by the larger and more powerful blasts of a rifle. There was little visible effect. A large percentage of the mechgun shots were simply reflected off of the polished armor and those that did strike true seemed to dissipate harmlessly across its surface. The same held true for Kilili's rifle fire.  
  
"Alright, screw this" Psilo yelled and drew her partisan, Kilili flashed a quick smile and exchanged her rifle for a brand. The two ran forwards and assaulted the monstrous creature head on. Psilo swung her pole arm over Kilili's head, and Kilili used heavy-handed strokes with her brand in an attempt to cause damage. It was a wasted effort. Every blow seemed to be easily absorbed by the creature as it continued in its relentless advance.  
  
Ryzada was having her own problems as the Gigobooma that she was squaring off against was similarly immune to her attacks. She, however, was not immune to it. The photon enhanced claws smashed into Ryzada's chest, scoring deep lines in her armor. She climbed to her feet and assumed a defensive stance. Her enemy swung for her again, only this time she was ready for it, she ducked the blow and stepped under it. She slammed her dagger sideways into the beast's flank, by pure chance the blade hit between the armor's joints and succeeded in drawing blood. The Gigobooma showed no sign of having felt the weapon being jammed into its abdomen and aimed another blow at Ryzada, which she dodged with difficulty, having to abandon her blade in her hurry to move out of the way. She yelled over to Psilo and Kilili "They don't feel any pain! You have to strike a lethal blow!"  
  
"No problem" Kilili called back, She moved a fraction of a second too late to avoid the vicious swipe that was aimed at her head. Only the positioning of her MAG saved her life, she thanked it as she flipped back to her feet. She drew her brand back and thrust it into the Gigobooma's belly.  
  
"Well that's one down" She said cheerfully "Now all we have to do is-" She was cut off as a fist connected with her jaw, she looked up angrily, a trickle off blood ran down the side of her mouth as a result of a cut lip.  
  
"YOU BLOODY BASTARD!" Her mood instantly changed from cheerful to immensely angry. Psilo looked on in amusement. Kilili sidestepped another blow "HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BLEED!" Her yelling didn't affect the metal clad horror at all. But her furious assault did. Attacking with a speed and fervor that almost singed the air with its energy Kilili began to hack at the Gigobooma, small chunks of shiny polished armor were flicked through the air as the tiny ranger unleashed her wrath upon the metal giant before her. Inevitably Kilili started to tire of the vigorous attacking and her reflexes became to slow to allow her to dodge a huge backhand swipe, she flew backwards and skidded along the ground, she climbed to her feet shaking and breathing heavily. A resta technique from Ryzada healed the majority of Kilili's injuries but she knew that there would be a few bruises by tomorrow.  
  
The Gigobooma Kilili had been battling against turned its attention to Psilo Who sighed and readied her partisan. Instead of holding it in the standard, battle ready, two-handed fashion, she gripped it in one hand and leaned backwards. When she judged her enemy to be close enough she shifted her weight forwards and thrust with the partisan as hard as she could. The blade pierced the creature at a point somewhere between were its ribs ended and where its guts began. So great was the force of the blow that it severed the beast's spinal column and with a vicious twist, Psilo cut the Gigobooma in half. It fell to the floor in separate pieces, the top half still clawing its way towards Psilo. Until all the blood drained from its body and the thing finally stopped moving.  
  
Now knowing the easiest way to stop their enemy, the three fighters converged upon the remaining monster. Unfortunately the same tactic did not work twice. Instead of skewering the Gigobooma, as it had done to its predecessor, Psilo's thrust resulted in the partisan's destruction as the handle snapped and Psilo's arm was numbed to the shoulder by the impact. A new plan was needed.  
  
It was Ryzada who thought of it. Obviously this thing was animated in the same manner as Asrith's cat. Which meant that it was preprogrammed to do all this. That was why it didn't react to pain, it wasn't programmed to. So if something unexpected were to happen, the program wouldn't know what to do. She yelled to Psilo and Kilili  
  
"Stay back please, I need it to target me."  
  
Psilo and Kilili were confused by this request, but complied. Ryzada could risk her life if she wanted to, it was her choice.  
  
As far as Ryzada was concerned, this was no risk. There was no way her plan could possibly fail, Asrith was the one who programmed the Gigobooma, and if she couldn't outwit Asrith there was something seriously wrong.  
  
Using the dagger that she had left lodged in the creatures flank as a foothold Ryzada half climbed, half jumped onto the Gigoboomas head. Crouching, ready to move, she awaited the critical moment in this plan. If Asrith HAD considered this eventuality then this was going to hurt. The beast swung its paw, this was the deciding moment. Ryzada jumped as high as she could, straight up.  
  
It worked, as Ryzada had been hoping, the programming instructed the beast to attack the target. Which it did. Unfortunately for it, the target wasn't there and its fist connected solidly with the side of its head. Ryzada landed back on the beast's shoulders and made ready to jump again. She timed her movement to match the Gigobooma's swings. Since the thing was not capable of feeling pain, it didn't even notice when it smashed its own skull cavity in. Ryzada dropped to the floor and dusted herself down.  
  
"And that, ladies, is how it's done" She bowed, smiling to herself.  
  
Psilo clapped sarcastically. "Very well done, now incase you failed to notice, we have a lab to search and we are only just inside the door. So lets get moving" The party started to proceed down the corridor but Kilili dashed back to the fallen Gigobooma and crouched next to it, her actions obscured because her back was turned to her companions. When she jogged back to them, she had something shiny on her shield arm.  
  
"Kilili?" Ryzada asked "Is that what I think it is?"  
  
Kilili nodded "Well it seemed to protect them well enough didn't it?"  
  
"Gross"  
  
"It's not gross, its just a bit of metal, it'll be fine once I get all the blood wiped off."  
  
"Gross" Ryzada repeated  
  
"Whatever" Psilo didn't care at all "We need to get moving, it's obvious to me that this doctor Asrith is quite insane and therefore the sooner we rescue Skyla, the better."  
  
"She is way too serious don't you think?" Kilili whispered to Ryzada, yet again she was in high spirits after a fight.  
  
"I heard that Kilili" Psilo muttered  
  
The three made their way towards the door at the end of the short corridor, leaving the atrium behind them covered in purple blood.  
  
Wow that took long enough to write, I guess it's because I wanted to solve the fight without the use of deus ex (had enough of that in the last chapter) I think it was satisfactory, apart from making Asrith look pretty stupid. Oh well. Oh yeah I now have a Guard Wave! Awesomeness! Only one more level till Ryzada can equip the thing, that's right, she's lvl 100 (a halfway decent character) uhh sorry mini-Bert, honestly forgot that you submitted a char if it's any consolation I will put Kinami in. 


	18. Basic Personality

Ugh I feel like death. Seriously, all cold and bony ya know. Really though I have no clue exactly how long its going to take me to write this chapter, so please be patient with me. I guess updates on the whole may slow down by a little, but that's cos I'm not feeling too good, so don't feel like writing as much as I usually do.  
  
Magus was greeted in the usual morning fashion. Mei stirred from his chest and sat up, blinking and looking around groggily she yawned and stretched. An act which Magus avoided looking at.  
  
"Mei? Do you think maybe you should get a small pallet to sleep on?"  
  
She looked at him, smiling as always "Why? You're much more comfortable than any stupid pallet."  
  
Magus sighed "That really wasn't the point, it's just, wouldn't you rather sleep on your own."  
  
Suddenly Mei was pressed against him, holding on tightly, her fingernails almost causing Magus pain she was gripping that forcefully.  
  
"No" She said in a small voice "don't leave me alone, please?"  
  
Magus was shocked at the reaction that his simple question had provoked, but nevertheless he didn't question it, he simply put it down as one of her quirks and did his best to reassure her.  
  
"It's okay, I was only wondering. You can sleep wherever you want to." Mei's grip relaxed and she nuzzled closer to him. Phew, another potential situation disarmed, Magus thought to himself. Then he was aware of the fact that Mei was rubbing up against him. He sat up quickly.  
  
"Whats wrong?" Mei asked innocently  
  
"Umm uhh." Magus stammered "I can smell something burning"  
  
Mei sniffed the air, It was true, something was burning. She looked over her shoulder and saw black smoke drifting along the ceiling. It was coming from the kitchen.  
  
"Oh that." She shrugged it off as if it didn't matter "That's just Mery making breakfast"  
  
Moving Mei to one side Magus got out of his bed and almost ran to the kitchen. The smoke was so thick it threatened to choke him.  
  
"What the hell is going on?" He asked, some of the demanding quality being stolen from his voice by his need to cough mid sentence. "It is not as easy to make toast as I had anticipated" Mery's reply came from somewhere within the black cloud.  
  
"TOAST!" Magus coughed some more "How can you do this with toast!"  
  
"I do not know, If you wish I could do some research and find out for you."  
  
There was a thud as the toaster ejected its contents. Magus had stumbled across the room and had reached the extractor fan that was over the oven, he flicked it on and soon the smoke was cleared.  
  
"Should I make another attempt at breakfast?" Mery asked  
  
"NO! not now, not ever!" Magus coughed the last of the smoke out of his throat. Damned android, couldn't even get toast right.  
  
Mei wandered into the room, still only dressed in the thin nightshirt in which she slept. Barely acknowledging the presence of the glowering Magus and the object of his anger Mery, she walked over to the toaster and snatched a piece of the completely black toast. She sauntered back out of the room taking a thoughtful bite out of the coal-like slice of toast.  
  
Magus blinked amazed by Mei's ability to eat the stuff and not die. He was living with a very strange girl, but she was really cute. He shook his head, he had to stop thinking like that. She was his friend, and you don't act like that with people who are friends, he glanced at Mery, god he hoped not.  
  
The beeping of his pager interrupted his thoughts. He picked it up and read the scrolling message.  
  
PIT AREA, 3PM, GRISHDAL, BRING ONE ALLY  
  
Magus felt a small knot of anxiety, his first pit fight. Would it be as simple as he hoped? Monsters weren't usually too much of a threat, but what the hell was a Grishdal? Who to bring as an ally though? He glanced at Mery, the android who could neither run errands nor make toast? He looked into the other room where Mei was sitting with a dreamy expression, snacking on her fully carbonised bread. The little force who forgot she could use techniques unless she was reminded? For once Magus was missing the presence of Raven, the guy was hopelessly anti-social, but he could be relied upon in a fight.  
  
Raven wasn't even entered in the pit fights, he saw them as pathetic attempts to achieve fame and glory. What would he need with them? He would be famous enough when he won the tournament. The last mission had made sure of that. He no longer had the small metallic object. It had long since grown to maturity, and now it sat against the wall. Blinking at him.  
  
Breakfast in Crimsons room was unusually uneventful, except for a small fire suddenly erupted in Crimsons cupboard, they ate in relative silence. As he was putting his breakfast tray away Crimsons pager beeped. Tatsu got to it first.  
  
"Ah well Crimson, it looks like you and me are going to go to the pit later today."  
  
"What do you mean "you and me?" Crimson asked  
  
"It's you and I, not you and me." Alice corrected the poor grammar from the kitchen  
  
"Me, I, same person really." Crimson replied shrugging "But anyway Tatsu what you do mean?"  
  
"Oh its just the message says to bring one ally, so that's me." Tatsu chucked the pager to Crimson who fumbled it a bit before catching it with his elbow.  
  
PIT AREA, 3PM, GRISHDAL, BRING ONE ALLY  
  
"Who's Grishdal?" Crimson wondered aloud.  
  
"Not a clue" Tatsu admitted "I suppose I should prepare my combat gear shouldn't I?"  
  
"Why? Do you have a match too?"  
  
Tatsu blinked "No, I'm coming with you to fight this Grishdal thing aren't I?"  
  
"Umm well, not to hurt your feelings or anything, but I kinda thought I might take Alice? You know, for a bit of technique support."  
  
"Oh. Right. Sure. It's not a problem, I'm totally fine with it, best of luck to the two of you." He got up from the table and went to his room, he locked the door behind him.  
  
Alice came back from the kitchen, quite satisfied that the washing up was properly done.  
  
"What was all that about?" She asked Crimson who was looking both surprised and amused.  
  
"To be honest? I really don't know" He answered "You are able to help me right? I mean you don't have any other appointments today do you?"  
  
Alice dismissed the question with a wave of her hand "It's no problem at all, I was going to spend today watching TV anyway. This sounds much more interesting."  
  
"Okay that's good. You'll need to have your stuff ready for 3pm okay?"  
  
"Okay. Umm do you think I should go check on Tatsu or something?"  
  
"Nah, he'll be fine."  
  
"Umm okay, if you say so" Alice was a little dubious  
  
Tatsu could hear every word of this through the thin walls of the hotel. "ohh if you say so Crimson" He muttered staring at the ceiling. Wasn't it enough for Crimson that he had Ryzada swooning over him? Why did he always have to do this? Tatsu worked so hard at being nice and friendly and caring. Then along comes Crimson with his quirks and his charm and being all tall and stuff, and every girl within a five mile radius just melted for him.  
  
Tatsu flipped over so he was now staring intently at the pillow. He should have expected this anyway, what girl would want to spend time with him? He was just some short hunter who was just, sort of, there.  
  
There was a polite knock at his door and Alice's voice was heard "Tatsu? Can I have a word or two with you?"  
  
"No" Tatsu said bitterly "I'm busy, but I'm sure Crimson has time for you."  
  
There was a small bang and Tatsu's door fell off its hinges.  
  
"Oops" Alice looked at the doorway sheepishly "Maybe a little too powerful"  
  
Tatsu couldn't resist a smile and he sat at the edge of the bed. So what if Alice didn't liked Crimson more? She was still his friend, he couldn't be mad at her.  
  
"What is it you want to talk about?"  
  
Alice sat down next to him. "Well I'm kind of embarrassed about it."  
  
"That's okay, you can talk about anything with me."  
  
"You know when you said I was a bit reckless in a fight and got hurt more than I should?"  
  
"Oh that, well I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it in a bad way or anything."  
  
Alice smiled "Don't apologise it was good advice"  
  
"Oh, sorry"  
  
Alice frowned "you should stop apologising when you don't have to Tatsu, it doesn't show much self confidence."  
  
"Of course it doesn't, sorry."  
  
Alice rolled her eyes "Anyway, umm since I'm helping Crimson in this pit fight thing, I was just wondering..."  
  
"Yes, go on" Tatsu encouraged her  
  
"Well umm, I don't want to ask, because I've asked so much of you already."  
  
"No, really it's okay, you know I'd do anything for you." Tatsu could have kicked himself for saying that.  
  
"Okay" Alice blushed a delicate shade of pink "I was just wondering if you could give me a lesson or two on how to fight?"  
  
Tatsu was flustered at this request, he had never taught anything to anyone. "Uhh you mean give you a few tips? Like stance and tactics?"  
  
"No no no, I mean physical combat" Alice smacked a fist into the palm of her hand "I want to know exactly what to do when something gets too close."  
  
"I've always found it's a good idea to run when that happens"  
  
"Come on Tatsu" Alice pleaded "I don't want people to think I need big strong friends to fight for me, I want to show them I can take care of myself."  
  
"But there isn't enough room to practice here! We'd need a big open space"  
  
"That's not a problem, there's a training room near the arena, you knew that already"  
  
"But I couldn't spar with you, I wouldn't be doing it right, I'd be too worried about hurting you."  
  
Alice was growing tired of his protestations "Okay, I guess I'll just have to get Crimson to show me how to use those guns of his"  
  
This provoked a reaction, one because Tatsu was jealous of every moment Crimson spent with Alice, and two, because "those guns of his" were probably more dangerous to hold on to than your average cobra.  
  
"Alright, I give up, I'll show you how to use a saber"  
  
"Thanks Tatsu, I knew you'd understand" Alice got up and left the room turning to blow Tatsu a kiss and say "Meet me at the training room in 30 minutes, you'll need your combat gear on."  
  
They met and the door to the training room, Tatsu couldn't help staring at Alice in her combat gear, it was a very nice skirt. They weren't alone in the training room, there was a person in black and blue armour furiously attacking the training android. Tatsu and Alice stood on the sidelines watching.  
  
The person was displaying some impressive swordsmanship and a good deal of agility. But after a few more minutes of fencing he called a stop and the android returned to its place. He pulled his mask off and sat down on a bench. Tatsu recognised him immediately.  
  
"It's you!"  
  
"Oh, I didn't see you come in" Chimpus pulled his mask down to cover his face again. "Feel up to a little sparring match?"  
  
"Of course, I could beat you senseless before you could even blink" There was a tug at Tatsu's arm. "Oh, well I would spar with you, but I promised Alice I'd show her a few moves."  
  
Chimpus looked at Alice as if noticing her for the first time "You're Alice?"  
  
Alice stood up and bowed her head slightly "Yes I'm Alice Arke."  
  
"Do you remember me? I'm Chimpus Nuclear"  
  
Alice looked confused "Umm sorry I don't remember you at all, have we met?"  
  
"I was in your class for basic technique usage, remember now?"  
  
Alice shook her head "Sorry"  
  
"That's alright, I didn't exactly shine as a student, you were great though, you were always meant to be a force."  
  
Alice blushed a little at the compliment. Tatsu got to his feet and drew his buster "Well we have some practice to be getting on with Alice, so we may as well start now." He handed her a saber.  
  
"Mind if I help out?" Chimpus asked "I know a little about how to use sabers myself you know."  
  
Tatsu didn't look pleased at the prospect of sharing Alice with Chimpus but he didn't object. Alice also had no objections and so together Tatsu and Chimpus showed Alice how to use hunter equipment.  
  
It turned out that she was a quick learner and soon mastered the basics of Tatsu's fencing style. It was Chimpus who first suggested she learn how to use barriers, he reasoned that if she was going to be in close combat, knowing how to attack wasn't enough, defence would be important too. So he and Tatsu partnered up Chimpus demonstrating the most effective defensive manoeuvres and Tatsu using the standard attack patterns that it was expected to encounter.  
  
It was all going well until Chimpus suggested that Alice try defending from some of his attacks.  
  
"You have to be kidding!" Tatsu exclaimed, "These are weapons, not toys, you could hurt her."  
  
"I'll be careful" Chimpus promised  
  
"Accidents can happen no matter how careful you are."  
  
"How about you be the one attacking me?" Asked Alice "It's not like you'd hurt me no matter what the circumstances."  
  
Tatsu agreed to this but Chimpus didn't "You'd trust him over me? He may be your friend Alice but his moves aren't quite as polished as mine are, just one little slip would be all it would take you ruin that beautiful face of yours."  
  
A fist connected with the side of Chimpus' face and he fell to the floor, Tatsu was standing over him "I would NEVER hurt her, how dare you even suggest that I would!"  
  
Chimpus' lip was cut from the force of the blow "Whoa, lighten up man, I wasn't saying you'd do it on purpose" Tatsu stood back to allow Chimpus to get back to his feet. As soon as he regained his footing Chimpus lashed out at Tatsu, the sudden blow catching him off guard "Don't ever hit me again."  
  
Tatsu stared at Chimpus, his eyes blazing "You don't want me to hit you again? What the hell makes you think I care what you want?" Chimpus stumbled back from the punches to his stomach.  
  
"That's it shorty, I've had enough of this." Chimpus drew an autogun and fired. Quick as a flash Tatsu's buster was in his hand and Rudra chirped angrily and blocked the shot.  
  
Tatsu assumed a back stance, holding his buster with both hands "You wanted a sparring match?" He ran forwards and slashed downwards, Chimpus jumped out of the way "THEN LET'S SPAR."  
  
Chimpus drew a brand "With pleasure." The two fighters circled each other cautiously. As Chimpus leaped forwards to close the gap and begin combat, he was caught in the chest by a ball of fire. He got to his feet glaring at Alice as she levelled her staff at him. "Forget it, you aren't worth my time Tatsu, we'll settle things later" Chimpus left through the door.  
  
"Hey thanks Alice, sorry I sort of lost my temper there."  
  
"Sort of!" Alice was pretty angry "That was the stupidest, most moronic display of macho male attitude I have ever seen!" She scowled at him "I really thought you would be different, but no, you're just the same as every other guy out there."  
  
"I'm really sorry Alice, really I am, I just hated him standing around, acting like he was so much better than me."  
  
"That's exactly the attitude I'm talking about" Alice said exasperated "You guys just can't stand the idea that there are people out there who are better than you, even if they aren't, it digs and digs at you 'till you do something like that."  
  
"So you are saying that he is better than me?"  
  
"No, you idiot, I'm saying you should let things go and try to see people as equal to you, the world isn't divided into weaker and stronger people Tatsu, Its just full of people, Crimson understands that, you don't, that's why I talk to him more than I talk to you, I'm going to go get ready for the pit fight, come and talk to me when you've grown up." Alice stormed out of the room leaving Tatsu to curse himself for being a fool.  
  
He sat heavily on the bench, holding his head in his hands. He was such an idiot! But how could he fix this? What could possibly make this right? The problem was his basic personality, maybe it was just that he would never be right for Alice simply because he was himself?  
  
Next chapter will be along in a couple of days, probably 3 or 4. don't worry Arkkon Raven is in the tournament, I'm just saving him for later, anyone who has guessed what it is that he has got, shhh keep it quiet, don't tell the other people. T'would be interesting to see how many people can get it just from the clues in this chapter tho. 


	19. Men Suck

Whoo hoo! Crimson has a Yasminkov! I expect he will be proposing to it any day now. Really I love that gun, shotguns are the best weapon ever invented, He doesn't even have to be pointing it in the right direction. Just need to get the other variants now   
  
Crimson noticed that something was wrong with Alice the moment she got back. He heard the door explode inwards and the distinctive sound of platform boots stomping on the floor. He got up from his seat in front of the TV and went to investigate.  
  
Alice threw her equipment into a corner causing Kyou to chirp in alarm  
  
"MEN SUCK!" She declared loudly to the corridor  
  
"Does that include me?" The calm, yet concerned, voice of Crimson sounded from behind her. She turned round to face him.  
  
"Umm Crimson, sorry I didn't notice you there."  
  
"Obviously" Crimson looked over Alice's shoulder "I suppose you'll be needing that door fixed?"  
  
"Umm yes please" Alice said guiltily, perhaps blowing the door open wasn't such a good idea? Crimson disappeared into his cupboard and came back with a variety of elaborate looking tools. Alice could only identify a few of them.  
  
"Who's got you so wound up anyway?" Crimson asked as he lifted the door back into place "Was it Tatsu? Or some other guy that "sucked""  
  
"It was Tatsu" Alice admitted  
  
"What did he do?" Crimson ripped the cover panel off of the key card reader, forgetting that he could have just unscrewed it "I would have thought he'd be the last person to upset you."  
  
"He was just acting like such a guy" Alice replied, a touch of anger entered her voice simply from remembering.  
  
"Care to Elaborate? Guys act like guys all the time, and I don't see you getting mad at all of them" Crimson had now removed the card reader from the wall and placed it on the floor, he shined a flashlight into the now empty hole.  
  
"Well you know" Alice said evasively "The whole "I'm a guy and I'm really tough so if I don't like you I'm going to beat you up" thing."  
  
"So?" There were a few sparks as Crimson probed around with one of the tools that Alice had been unable to identify. There was a muffled bang and the tool left Crimsons hand at high velocity, embedding itself in the opposite well. "Could you get that for me please Alice?"  
  
Alice complied, and after a minor struggle managed to pull the instrument from out of the wall. She handed it back to Crimson who accepted it with thanks. "What do you mean "so?"? He was acting like a total jerk to this other guy, for almost no reason."  
  
"Almost no reason?" Crimson resumed his probing of the hole  
  
"Well Chimpus, the other guy, did insult Tatsu's fighting skills."  
  
Crimson nodded, though whether it was because of Alice's statement or something in the hole was anybody's guess. "Was there anything else."  
  
"Umm well Chimpus did say I was pretty, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. Does it?" Alice was unsure of herself.  
  
Crimson stood up and dusted his hands off. "It probably had everything to do with it. It's a basic reaction in guys, somebody tries to take something of yours, you fight them for it. Its written down somewhere in the primitive part of the brain."  
  
"Tatsu thinks of me as his?" Alice questioned  
  
"No no, not at all, he's smarter than that." Crimson gave a half laugh "Tatsu likes you, so he is protective of you, its not like he has a say in the matter, and I'm pretty sure that Chimpus pushed the fight."  
  
"Well maybe. But how did you know there was a fight? For that matter how did you know Chimpus was pushing it?"  
  
"It's the "primitive brain" thing again, Tatsu likes you, so does Chimpus. But Tatsu is your friend, so Chimpus is jealous of that. Friendship isn't something that you can take from somebody in a fight, but instincts don't really care about that. If I were you I would forgive Tatsu, His rational side will try and force him to act the right way." Crimson picked up something that Alice recognised as a hand held welding gun.  
  
"Wow Crimson, I'm impressed, I never knew you could read people's actions like that. You should have been a psychiatrist."  
  
"I thought about it, and being a tekker or a pilot, or an engineer or joining the army or being a mechanic." He flicked the welding gun to on.  
  
"Why did you decide to be a hunter?"  
  
"The pay looked good, and I get to do my own thing." Crimson lied, he didn't really want to tell Alice his actual reason for becoming a hunter, it was rather childish. "You should look away, the sparks are pretty bright." He cautioned. Alice did so and after a few moments the door was back in place, as good as new. Almost.  
  
"Umm Crimson?" Alice asked "How are you going to connect the card reader back up?"  
  
"Simple, I just connect the wires through the hole in the side of the door frame."  
  
"You mean the side of the door frame that you just attached the door to?"  
  
Crimson looked at the door and blinked "DAMMIT" He kicked the door and it fell inwards. "Alice?" Crimson said in a flat tone of voice.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Don't mention this to Tatsu. Ever."  
  
"I wont" Alice promised, trying hard not to laugh.  
  
After a while they managed to fix the door back into place, and with a little bit of cleaning and some spray paint they also got rid of the scorch marks on it. However after this repair job 3pm was rapidly approaching. So Crimson and Alice gathered their equipment and hurried down to the pit area.  
  
It turned out that there was no need to rush, as a tournament official met them at the entrance to the arena referred to as "the pit"  
  
"Your match won't start until 3:30, you are instructed to wait in the ready room and get to know your allies for this match." The official said in a slightly pretentious tone.  
  
And so Alice and Crimson walked back down the corridor to the ready room. Crimson commented on how absurd this was.  
  
"We need to take 30 minutes to get to know each other? Seems kind of pointless after we've been living in the same place for almost 2 weeks now." Alice agreed absently, she was thinking about what the official had said "your allies" surely it should have been ally, why use the plural? She doubted that such a pompous man would be using poor grammar. Although won't wasn't really a word. It really should be "willn't".  
  
They opened the door to the ready room and were surprised by what they saw. Already in the room sat two other hunters. One of them was plainly dressed in non descript black clothes and a mask hiding his features. Oddly he was barefoot and seemed to carry no MAG or equipment. The other was a small girl dressed much more brightly, both her top and her skirt being a mix of white and bright blue. She seemed to be firmly attached to the older hunters arm. Upon Crimson's and Alice's entrance the girl jumped to her feet and crossed the room in approximately the same amount of time it would have taken the average speeding bullet. She crashed into Crimson, hugging him tightly and knocking him to the floor.  
  
"Hiya Crimson its so good to see you again its been ages and ages since the last time do you remember the last time we met we were in that room with the sharks and we were surrounded by them and I passed out so I don't know what happened next and after I ran after Magus I didn't see you guys again so I didn't know if you were okay but now I know you're okay and we're going to be in this match together isn't that great oh hiya Alice." Mei stopped to breathe, a fact that Crimson was grateful for because it seemed impossible that Mei could talk for any longer without blacking out.  
  
Magus lifted Mei to her feet and extended one hand to Crimson. Crimson accepted the hand that was offered and allowed Magus to help him back to his feet.  
  
"Crimson, Alice" He said almost formally "It's been a while."  
  
"Nice to see you too Mr Black, I didn't know you were here with Mei." Crimson responded.  
  
"It's not like that." Crimson was certain that beneath the mask Magus was blushing  
  
"Yeah we only sleep together you know." Mei said, she had re-attached herself to Magus' arm. Magus' cheeks were burning from the embarrassment he was experiencing.  
  
"We just sleep, nothing else happens at all, really."  
  
"Magus really is great to sleep with, he's so comfortable and he always knows exactly what to do to make sure I'm happy." Mei said completely unaware of what she had just implied.  
  
Crimson was laughing so hard he was starting to choke from it and Alice was blushing a deep shade of red. Magus was standing there, hoping against hope that maybe the floor would open up and swallow him.  
  
A few minutes later the four of them were sitting down discussing recent events and generally catching up. Crimson had his sniper on his knees and was checking each individual part.  
  
"Wow that's a really big gun!" Mei said peering over at it "Can I have a look at it?"  
  
"Sure" Crimson handed it to her."  
  
Mei reached out with one hand and grabbed the sniper by the stock. The huge weight of the weapon caused her to overbalance and she ended up sprawled across the floor, the impact causing the weapon to fire a single shot which smashed through the front of a drinks dispenser.  
  
"Umm it's a little bit heavy" She said sheepishly as a can rolled past her, she snagged the can with her left hand and stood up, pulling the ring pull off of it. The can opened with a fizz.  
  
Mei didn't get to have her drink as Magus reached over her shoulder and took it from her. He walked over to the machine and put 3 meseta into the coin slot.  
  
"Hey! my drink." Mei wailed  
  
Magus swallowed a mouthful of it "One, you didn't pay for it and its wrong to steal and two, you're underage and aren't allowed caffeinated beverages.".  
  
"I'll be 18 next month" Mei complained some more  
  
"Then next month you can drink this." Magus said firmly  
  
"You're mean, meany" Mei stuck her tongue out  
  
Crimson leaned over to Alice "Aww don't they make such a cute couple?" he whispered  
  
"I don't know" Alice whispered back "Magus is old enough to be her father."  
  
"It's not like that." Magus was probably blushing some more "Really, we're just friends"  
  
Crimson burst out laughing and Alice giggled at Magus' usage of the famous line. Magus failed to see what was so funny. The door to the ready room opened and two more figures stepped inside, A tall male android and a short woman. Both of them looked as if they meant business. The woman spoke first.  
  
"I am Tyra Major of the Galactic Mobile Infantry, 16th Squadron. I hold the rank of sergeant and as such I demand respect from each of you miserable excuses for soldiers. Is that clear?"  
  
"Actually we're hunters not soldiers." Crimson pointed out  
  
Tyra stood right in front of Crimson , glaring down at him. "I SAID IS THAT CLEAR MAGGOT!"  
  
Crimson stood up and looked calmly down at Tyra who stood a couple of inches shorter than him. "You make yourself perfectly clear sergeant Major"  
  
"ARE YOU TAKING THE MICHAEL SOLDIER!"  
  
Crimson sat back down and leaned back "Of course not, I have all the respect for you that you deserve sergeant Major."  
  
"You're coming close to insubordination soldier one more word out of you and GET AWAY FROM THAT ANDROID" She yelled the last as she caught sight of Mei pestering the other newcomer.  
  
"Hey you look kinda like my friend Mery do you know Mery? Probably not but he is very strange I hope you aren't like Mery because then we will be in really big trouble when the fight starts hey that's a really cool light what's it for do you move or speak or anything cos you haven't being doing much since you got here."  
  
"Affirmative, I am capable of performing several functions the most frequently used is my ability to engage in combat, there should be no worries of my ability to assist when the fight starts." The androids tone was warm and conversational, had he and the sergeant switched personalities or something?  
  
Mei was dragged away from the android by Tyra before the conversation could continue, Tyra and her android sat at the other side of the room, talking in low voices.  
  
"Magus, don't you think that was really rude of her?" Mei asked  
  
"Yes, but don't call me Magus, call me mister Black" Magus whispered back  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I don't want anyone else to know who I am, they would try to take me away."  
  
Mei's eyes widened "They can't do that, it would be really unfair and mean."  
  
"That's why I'm hiding from them Mei, so be quiet and don't let them know who I am, understand?"  
  
Mei nodded and the small group of four returned to chatting idly. When was the match going to start?  
  
Raven sat cross legged, staring at it. It blinked at him, he blinked back. It was fascinating, the way it pulsed and glowed with a strange vitality, the way there seemed to be an intelligence behind its roving eyes. I should probably get up and eat now Raven thought to himself. But he didn't move, if he just kept concentrating on it maybe he could unravel its mysteries.  
  
-.- -.-  
  
Well there was going to be a bit with Psilo's group, buuuut every time I start to write it I suddenly thought of something else that needed doing eg. Housework, looking for a job, playing dragon quarter. So It'll just be starting the next chapter off, and damn if the thing Raven has isn't mysterious. Anyways I'm off to go hack at things with my shiny new J-sword (I may have duplicated one a friend of mine got online, but hey, congrats to us for figuring out how to dupe things in single player ) 


	20. That's a Really big Monster

So I got myself a duped weapon? The problem being? It's no different to handing a high level mag to a lvl1 character and allowing them to stomp normal mode flat (if you don't do this, why not? It gets you to lvl 20 in like 3 hours) anyway I have no intention of taking anything duped online, when online I will play legit, I don't want to ruin anybody's fun, I just wanted a J-sword.  
  
Psilo held up her hand indicating a stop, it seemed that after 20 solid minutes of investigating this dead end room she had finally found something.  
  
"What is it?" Ryzada asked, looking over Psilo's shoulder  
  
"I need a light, a bright one."  
  
Ryzada thought about the flashlight that she had "borrowed" from Crimson, the one that he had installed a 240 watt bulb in, her Apsaras dutifully dropped it into her hand. Psilo grabbed the torch from Ryzada and flicked it on, even the light reflecting off of the metal wall was enough to dazzle her.  
  
"Its maybe a little too bright, but thank you anyway." Psilo held the light almost parallel to the wall. As she expected tiny shadows appeared, there was now a message written across the wall in a flowing script  
  
when twice 1 is 10 and half of 10 is 101 what is 7? At the same time that the message appeared a light sensitive cell activated and a small panel slid back to reveal a numeric keypad with the numbers 0-9 on it.  
  
Ryzada looked at the writing puzzled "Where did this message come from?"  
  
"It's an old trick that used to be used by smugglers, you make tiny scratches in a wall and if you do it right the shadows make letters." Psilo replied  
  
"How do you know about it if it's a smugglers trick?"  
  
"Never mind that, we have another bloody riddle to sort out."  
  
By this time Kilili had wandered up to take a look.  
  
"That's really stupid" She remarked after reading the question "Asrith is supposed to be a genius but he can't even count?"  
  
"No you idiot" Psilo snapped "It's obvious that he isn't using a standard method of counting, it's a math problem."  
  
"Whatever, we can just guess on the keypad can't we? Its not like we have a limited number of tries."  
  
"Fine, be my guest" Psilo sat down with her legs crossed "I'm going to figure out the answer without taking all day  
  
Kilili walked up to the keypad and punched in some random numbers, a voice issued from a small speaker.  
  
"Incorrect, access denied." An electrical discharge threw Kilili across the room, she climbed uneasily to her feet.  
  
"I don't think guessing is going to work" She muttered and then cast resta on herself, she sat down moodily and tried to comb down her now frizzy hair using her fingers.  
  
"I think I have it" Psilo declared. "Logically if half ten equals one hundred and one, and twice one equals ten, the answer is one hundred and twenty one. It's so simple, you just add the two numbers together, Asrith must be a total moron."  
  
Psilo got to her feet and tapped the number 121 into the keypad. "Incorrect, access denied."  
  
She followed Kilili's path across the room slamming into her friend both of them landing in an ungainly pile on the floor. When she got back up there were still sparks arcing through her hair.  
  
"I don't understand it, that has to be the right answer, it's the only number that logically fits." She muttered  
  
"Who ever said Asrith was a logical person?" Ryzada said "I don't think he is counting the usual way." She remembered how the clock on Crimsons PC used the Greek alphabet instead of numbers. Wait a moment, computer? They didn't count the usual way either and there was a conspicuous lack of high digits in Asrith's little puzzle.  
  
"Binary"  
  
"What?" Psilo looked at Ryzada "What in the hell is binary?"  
  
"Umm it's the language computers talk in."  
  
"And it helps us right now because?"  
  
"That's what Asrith used in the math, just ones and zeros."  
  
"I still don't follow"  
  
Ryzada gave an exasperated sigh, was this how Crimson felt when he tried to explain things? "It's not twice one equals ten, its twice one equals one, zero."  
  
"Oh, now it all makes perfect sense to me" Psilo feigned a look of enlightenment then discarded it "No, wait, it doesn't."  
  
"I think I get it" Kilili was still trying to get her hair flat "Does it mean that half of ten is one, zero, one not one hundred and one."  
  
"Exactly" Ryzada nodded  
  
"Well congratulations on your epic discovery, what's the damn code!" Psilo obviously didn't enjoy idle chatter when there was something to be done.  
  
"One, one, one" Ryzada said confidently and punched the code into the keypad, there was a musical chime and the keypad panel slid upwards to reveal a large red button. Ryzada reached into press it and then stopped.  
  
It was a little too obvious, she looked more closely, there was a small green button right in the bottom corner, she pressed that one.  
  
Luckily Psilo and Kilili were in a position to catch her as she flew backwards. The computerized voice from before spoke in pleasant tones.  
  
"Don't try to be so clever."  
  
"I'm not a violent person, but when we find Asrith, I'm going do some very un-pacifistic things to him." Ryzada muttered  
  
Psilo nodded her agreement.  
  
After pressing the large red button half of the wall disappeared into the floor. There was now a clear corridor and a plain room could be seen at the end of it.  
  
"Not another damned puzzle." Psilo growled  
  
"Sorry" Ryzada apologized "but I think there will be many more puzzles and probably a few traps along the way."  
  
"Oh well" Kilili said brightly "We'll solve them as we get to them."  
  
"Provided none of them kill us." Psilo added pessimistically  
  
"There shouldn't be too many lethal traps" Ryzada was confident "Asrith won't really try to kill us until the end."  
  
"Oh, Yay"  
  
"Was that sarcasm Psilo?" Kilili asked  
  
"No, I'm genuinely happy that a madman wants us dead, but plans on toying with us first."  
  
"Okay okay, I get it, give it a rest please."  
  
"Fine, we need to get moving anyway."  
  
They walked on to the next room, what annoying and pointless puzzle would they encounter this time? Kilili fervently hoped it was something a little more hair friendly than the last one.  
  
Over at the coliseum Crimson and company were busy readying themselves for combat. Crimson was checking his sniper obsessively, Alice was mentally reviewing the tips that Tatsu and Chimpus had given her, Magus was sat cross-legged and apparently in some sort of trance and Mei was checking her hair in a mirror. Tyra and the as of yet unnamed android were making no such preparations, they had entered the room ready for combat.  
  
As Crimson finished some minor tweaking with his sniper and Mei was finally happy with her fringe a tournament official opened the door and informed them in a rather rude and abrupt manner that they were to make their way to the combat area.  
  
They walked out in pairs, Alice sticking close to Crimson, Mei firmly attached to Magus and Tyra and the android walking determinedly ten paces ahead of them. When the group reached the arena they were slightly stunned from the cheering of the crowd and the brightness of the spotlights. This match apparently warranted a full commentary.  
  
"Well Bobba, this is it, the first pit fight in pioneer history, how will this group stand up to the creation of doctor Robinson?"  
  
"I have heavy bets on the hunters winning this one Jim, it looks to be a well balanced team tonight, though if I were leading this group I'd switch one of those forces for a ranger"  
  
"Don't make such rash decisions Bobba, Alice Arke has proved herself to be a talented force at both range and melee and we are yet to see how Mei Lung performs, but as she is the ally of choice for the mysterious Mr Black, I think we can safely bet that she has a lot of power packed into that little body."  
  
"I don't know about you Jim, but that Mr Black gives me the creeps."  
  
"You said it Bobba, I wouldn't like to meet him on a dark night. But anyway back to the match, any second now the steel doors will open and Grishdal will make its appearance.  
  
There was a dull boom at the other end of the arena and the sound of operating gears. The steel door sank slowly into the floor to reveal darkness, and out of that darkness shambled a creature of nightmare. Eighteen foot tall with legs like tree trunks the thing moved with an ape like gait swinging forwards on arms that had no hands but simply tapered off into a blunt cone. The beasts face was unreadable as it blinked in the bright light of the arena. It had no mouth and three vertical slits seemed to serve for its nose. Its eyes were large and bloodshot, darting this way and that and from the back of its head protruded multiple tentacles, much like those that acted as its arms except smaller. The whole thing was covered in reptilian scales that formed natural armour for the thing.  
  
"Wow that's a really big monster" Mei pointed out unnecessarily.  
  
"Thank you for pointing that out to everyone who failed to notice." Magus' sarcasm was lost on Mei  
  
"You're welcome Ma- I mean Mr Black" she called back cheerfully.  
  
Magus sighed, upon reflection maybe Mery would have been a better choice of ally? There was no time to think more deeply on the subject as Grishdal leaped across almost one hundred and fifty meters of sand, landing before the party with a phenomenal thud. It drew an arm back and aimed a punch at Tyra who rolled to one side and avoided it. The creature's arm seemed to change mid-punch. It somehow elongated giving it what should have been impossible reach and the smooth rounded end changed to a narrow and solid point, which crashed into the stone side of the arena. When Grishdal returned its arm to its side it left a large hole in the wall.  
  
This was going to get interesting, thought Magus as he reached inside his cloth shirt and withdrew a pair of well balanced daggers. Very interesting indeed.  
  
High above the arena, standing perfectly still atop the lights a shrouded figure watched the progress of the fighters far below. There was definitely something about this "Mr Black" the figure mused to herself. Obviously it was Magus, the hunter she had met in the caves, but there was something more to that, something even more familiar about him. It was getting difficult to remember things from the past, but they were still there, and when she remembered why she knew Magus then it was time to have some fun.  
  
Yeah okay, a long time writing for a short chapter, so sue me. Its been hard finding time to write, don't want to do it when my family is about, they would want to read it. And recently I've been sleeping at more sensible hours so I've been gaming more and writing less (found an excellent ROM for dragon warrior monsters) but worry not! I'm back to staying awake at night and sleeping at day and so at 3am I'll be writing more chapters, spare a thought for me as you rest in your comfortable beds. 


	21. A Likely Candidate

Don't worry, I am actually moving the plot along, its just you can't throw it in randomly, it makes no sense, everything has to have a reason for happening and that's the bloody hard part, I must have read back through this story at least 20 times already, and some smart ass will still be pointing out the mistakes I have made (I'm betting on Erith's brother)  
  
Crimson fired rapidly at Grishdal's arms but its armoured hide absorbed his shots. Alice was having similar luck throwing fireballs at it. Mei wasn't casting but attempting to engage in melee combat. Every time she got close she was forced to dodge backwards as one of the tentacles from the back of Grishdal's head lanced towards her. Magus was faring no better, his efforts at a close range offensive had simply resulted in the loss of one of his daggers as he had thrown it by pure reflex. It had flown true and struck the intended target right in the neck and was buried up to the hilt, but the wound drew no blood. Magus turned after avoiding another stabbing tendril and saw crimson firing ineffectually at the beasts arms.  
  
"Hey!" Magus yelled "Don't be such an idiot, this isn't another hunter, it's a monster, shoot to kill." A tentacle swept magus' legs out from beneath him and only his martial arts training saving him from being impaled by the blow that came afterwards. A quick roll and a side slash and he was back on his feet. He looked at his blade, he knew he had cut that tentacle, but there was no blood anywhere, what kind of enemy was this?  
  
"Well Jim it looks like these hunters came unprepared, nothing they have can even hurt Grishdal"  
  
"That's right Bobba, you really have to congratulate doctor Robinson on his talent at genetic engineering."  
  
After Magus' admonishment Crimson had changed his target and was now aiming at the monsters head. The effect was similar to before, except this time he attracted more attention. Using his sniper he vaulted over the arm that was swept towards him and landed lightly on his feet. This called for something more drastic. Madhu chirped and dropped a sphere into Crimsons hand.  
  
Crimson didn't remember taking this along, it was still in development, which made it a seriously hazardous device. At about the size of a tennis ball it looked innocent enough, but inside it was a high explosive charge and a payload of super cooled photons. In theory when it exploded it would also freeze the affected area solid. There was no doubt that it would work but Crimson didn't know how wide an area it affected. A grenade with a blast radius that was greater than a hunter could throw one was no good at all. He handed it back to Madhu.  
  
"It's a little too dangerous." He told his MAG who chirped dejectedly "How about an IDG?" Madhu cheered up instantly and materialised the requested device.  
  
The IDG a weapon of Crimsons own devising. Impact Detonation Grenade, what was the point in a grenade if it just bounced off of the target? The trick was throwing it hard enough, unfortunately it had to impact at high speed for it to work, Crimson was working on a gun that would fire them, but until that was complete he had another idea in mind. While Grishdal was momentarily distracted by Tyra's attempts at a sneak attack Crimson ran over to Magus  
  
"Take this" He instructed, pressing the grenade into Magus' hand "Throw it at the things head as hard as you can."  
  
Magus nodded his compliance  
  
"HEY UGLY!" He yelled, despite it not knowing English Grishdal turned to see the source of the noise. Magus slung the grenade and it struck Grishdal between the eyes with phenomenal force. The grenade detonated with a deafening bang and everyone shielded their face as wet chunks of gore splattered around the area. A weak cheer went up from the six hunters of the field. But celebration of any kind was premature. Grishdals decapitated body continued to flail its limbs and if anything it was angrier than before.  
  
"This is absolutely unbelievable Bobba, you would have thought that losing its head would kill this thing, but it hasn't even slowed it down."  
  
"Well Jim, according to the information on the internet, Grishdal doesn't have ANY brain at all, its cells work as a collective brain, all its got is a heart and lungs.  
  
Crimson's jaw dropped in disbelief, how could it carry on living without a head? He ducked a random tentacle as it flew over head. Okay the thing was blind, in pain and swinging wildly, what now Crimson? Taking its head of didn't work, what else should you try? Nothing immediately sprang to mind.  
  
Alice ducked one tentacle and jumped another. This was absolutely insane! If it could live without a head then what could possibly kill it? Grishdal's stampeding around the arena was causing tremors in the ground that made Alice feel more than a little queasy. A tendril shot out hurtling right towards her. Alice cast gibarta and moved out of the way in such a hurry that she stumbled and almost fell over. There was a dull cracking sound behind her and when she turned and looked there was a frozen end to a tentacle stuck in the ground.  
  
Where was Mei? Alice looked around for the girl, she couldn't be too hard to spot, half her clothes were bright blue. Alice saw her dodging tentacles a small distance away, her hammer not doing any damage at all.  
  
"Mei!" Alice called, then cleared her throat, he voice was not well adapted for shouting "Use ice techniques, they hurt it!"  
  
Mei nodded and began casting ice techniques at the beasts feet, they were having noticeable effect so she persevered. She was concentrating too deeply on casting to notice the huge arm that swung round at her. Mei was lifted from the ground and slammed violently into the wall. She disappeared without a trace, Alice hoped she was okay.  
  
"Oh ouch! That poor girl! This is why we always have a team on skilled medics on standby. Mei Lung should be fighting fit by tomorrow folks."  
  
"I don't know about that Bobba, many people wouldn't even survive that sort of impact, and what the hell is going on in that arena? It looks like Mr Black isn't taking the loss of his ally very well at all."  
  
"You got that right Jim, you can almost see his anger floating around him. Maybe Mr Black and Mei Lung are an item? I would certainly be mad at Grishdal if he put my sweetheart through a wall."  
  
Magus wasn't angry. He was beyond anger, beyond rage, and yet he wasn't too sure why, he kept telling himself to calm down, that there was no reason to act like this. But he wasn't listening. His fury continued to build until it was almost a physical manifestation. He knew this was dangerous but didn't care.  
  
Somewhere in the darkness something stirred from its eternal rest, it could see Magus clearly, despite the lack of light. It reached out and touched his mind and Magus welcomed it, his own little demon.  
  
Crimson and Alice backed away slowly, they didn't know exactly what was going on, but they knew they were scared by it. Tyra and her android however had not noticed and were still fighting on the other side of Grishdal. How could they not see it? Magus was now floating about three foot off the floor a strange type of energy, seemingly photonic, swirled around him. Then suddenly he dropped to the floor, landing with one knee bent. He stood up and there seemed to be nothing of the usual Magus left. He opened his eyes and instead of the usual deep brown they were pits of pure black. Darker than the night sky, darker than oblivion itself, they appeared more as holes in the very fabric of the universe. Magus spoke and the voice was not his own.  
  
"All shall suffer darkness and death, all shall know the true depths of despair, all shall know my pain!"  
  
It was somehow as if Magus' voice was being reflected by a cracked mirror, many tiny fragments of a larger whole. Upon hearing his voice Grishdal turned to face him, an arm thrust itself at Magus.  
  
He caught it with one hand and severed the end with the other. Magus advanced on Grishdal, brushing aside its blows as one might brush aside a rather persistent insect. Eventually he stood an arms distance from the creature. He spread his arms out at his side and lifted from the floor until he was at chest height with Grishdal.  
  
Magus drew back his fist and attacked swiftly, his hand seemed surrounded by a hazy smoke as it arced through the air. Where it struck Grishdal there was a burst of flame and the beast stumbled backwards, a huge bloody hole appearing where the blow had landed.  
  
Magus pressed the attack in a furious rage, his limbs all a blur as he struck again and again, each blow causing flames and injury, an acrid smoke filled the air as flesh burned. When the blows ceased to land there was nothing left of Grishdal's upper body, it had been beaten to a useless pulp. Even the resilient beast could not operate with such a wound and it fell backwards defeated.  
  
There was no cheering this time, even at Grishdal's assured death, there was only silence as Magus stood in the centre of the arena, exuding an aura of darkness that flowed around him, giving him the look of a man underwater. Tyra was the first to speak.  
  
"What kind of freak are you?" She demanded of Magus, how could she be so stupid as to challenge him in such a manner? Impudent wench.  
  
Magus smiled as he responded in that shattered voice that now belonged to him "A freak you call me? A freak they all call me. Humiliation and exile, ridicule and torment, yes. I have suffered them all. But I will suffer no more! Now it is the turn of others to suffer, suffer like I was forced to do, suffer like you all made me!"  
  
With inhuman speed he closed the gap between himself and Tyra. With horrible strength he dealt her a mighty blow. The sound of her ribs snapping filled the arena, punctuating the silence like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. She didn't even hit the ground as she was teleported to the hospital, not that any amount of healing could ever fully repair the damage done.  
  
Her android ran at Magus in a full charge, roaring mightily as he swung his partisan. Magus did not even block the attack. When the blade of the partisan contacted with the aura surrounding Magus it was simply extinguished. Magus jabbed with his palm out flat. The android flew backwards in a straight line and smashed into the side of the arena some 60 feet away. He would never get up again.  
  
Now Magus turned his attention to the two remaining hunters. The force girl and the gun wielder. They too would pay for his torment. He could see that the girl was crying. Crying in fear for her life, how pathetic. A thought flashed across Magus' mind, what did these two have to do with his pain? Nothing, they had nothing to do with it. But that was another crime, they stood by and did nothing. But that wasn't their fault, they didn't know him back then, they didn't know he was in pain. Ignorance, was that not the greatest crime of all?  
  
In a twinkling he had crossed the arena to stand before the cowering pair. The gun wielder stood between him and the girl, he aimed no weapons, but yet he was in the way. He wished to die first? So be it. Was that really alright? Did he deserve to die for wanting to protect someone? Magus could find no answer to that. He faltered for a moment. Crimson took this moment to speak.  
  
"I don't know what's going on in your head right now, but you need to think, you say you've been in pain? You say you've suffered? Do you really think that hurting others will take that away? You can't get rid of it like that, it just spreads it like a disease."  
  
"Silence pathetic being!" Magus roared and dealt Crimson a backhand blow that sent him spinning into the dirt.  
  
Crimson staggered to his feet "The more people you kill the worse you'll feel, death cannot solve anything."  
  
"I commanded your silence, OBEY ME!" Magus thrust and hand out and a part of his shimmering aura lanced towards Crimson, striking him through the side. A resta technique from Alice healed the damage.  
  
"Does it help? Does it erase painfully memories? Or does it create more? Doesn't it just burn away at you just knowing that you caused someone else to suffer? And does it not help when you cause someone else to be happy?" Crimson coughed and blood spattered the arena floor.  
  
Magus drew his fist back to strike once more, but something stopped him. The gun wielders words made sense, he could not transfer his own pain to others, he had to carry it by himself, upon thinking this he grew sad, sad that he had to bear this burden by himself, and as this sadness washed over him it cleansed him of his anger and pushed back the darkness. Magus suddenly returned to being himself once more. Just as he was aware of his return to self, he collapsed face first into the sand, his body and mind too punished to function properly.  
  
The person in the rafters smiled to herself, so? A disciple of the oni-ken school of martial arts? She thought she had seen to the last of them quite a number of years ago. But no matter, now he could be very useful to the cause, the dark one was always recruiting new servants, and he had grown particularly insistent as of late. Like a shadow the figure flitted across the roof, she had to go and monitor the other candidate.  
  
Raven had neither slept nor eaten in the past day, It commanded all of his attention.  
  
"So strange" He murmured to It "You call to me somehow, and yet I don't know why."  
  
Raven stared at it intently, it was most definitely alive, he was sure of that. It had a heartbeat, it had eyes it had flesh and most likely blood. It also had sentience, perhaps. Was it sentience behind those ever roving eyes? No, not really, it was more like purpose. That was it, this thing had a purpose, some sort of drive. But what? Raven grabbed it by the hilt and lifted it from the floor, he could feel its energy beneath his hand. It was so big and yet weighed almost nothing. He locked gaze with one of its eyes, it was entrancing, pulling him deeper and deeper into itself. Raven felt a flash of heat sear across his mind and he dropped the thing to the floor as if it were a venomous snake. Why had he wished for this most accursed blade? He had thought to own it, but slowly it was owning him.  
  
"Curse you..." Raven whispered under his breath "curse you dragon slayer."  
  
The dragon slayer blinked at him as it always did, but Raven knew it was concentrating all of its malicious will upon him. What would it be like to give in to it?  
  
"What is it that you offer to me dragon slayer? What is this gift that my mind will not allow me to refuse?"  
  
Power, that's what it was offering him, if he truly linked to the sword he would be unstoppable. And why not? Did he not have the right to command such power? He had every right. Why should he be forced to live the same existence as these other lowly hunters? No reason at all. This was his salvation and his birthright, he had wanted power, and now power came to him, there was no reason not to take it.  
  
And so he did, placing both hands on the hilt he once more lifted the dragon slayer from the ground, and as he did the sword lifted him. It took him far beyond this mortal coil and elevated him to his true place. Raven smiled as the sword engulfed his soul and laughed as it swallowed his mind.  
  
Holy mother of all cliffhangers batman! Mei is in hospital, Magus is losing it, Raven's soul is under attack, and that damned mysterious person is just hanging around. I really promise to update soon, it would be cruel to leave it like this for too long. On the other hand I could do with a two week break just kidding, I shall update in another couple of days. 


	22. The Other Side?

Some observant people will have noticed that I am making the dragon slayer a pretty similar weapon to the soul edge, this is true, as a matter of fact there are a few references to other things in this fic, try to spot them all oh and .hack was released in England recently and I have acquired it via my evil powers. If this is the last you hear of me for a while, I'm either playing obsessively, or have fallen into a mysterious coma (which I won't because if I do who will save orca?)  
  
When Magus awoke it was to the stark white of a hospital room, he inhaled deeply and his nose was filled with the smell of disinfectant. It bothered him that the air carried no other scent, he never had liked hospitals, they were an unnatural environment to him. The sounds that greeted him upon his revival were also unnatural, the hum of electricity, the quiet beeps of various machines and the sounds of shallow breathing, he was not alone in this room. He tried to turn his head to see who else occupied the ward, but found he could not as he was held in place by solid restraints.  
  
A nurse noticed his movements and hurried over to him. Magus could hear the scribbling of a pen against paper.  
  
"Why am I tied down?" He asked the nurse, it sounded more like he was asking an opinion than making any kind of demand.  
  
"Very sorry Mr Black, but after seeing what you did back there, the doctor didn't think it was wise to let you move freely, we thought you might still be..." she trailed off.  
  
"Dangerous?" Magus finished for her "You have my word that I'm not a danger to you or to any other in this building, do you think you could release me? My joints ache from all this laying still."  
  
The nurse hesitantly undid the restraints that immobilised Magus, gaining confidence as he made no move to attack her. When she was done he sat up and thanked her, swinging his protesting legs to dangle over the edge of the bed. He looked down in distaste, pure white pyjamas, any kind of restriction on his movement made Magus feel uneasy, but he would have to endure for now. A pen appeared in front of his face and he watched it move from side to side for a few moments before demanding to know what the nurse was doing.  
  
"Oh just checking that everything is okay, your eyes seem to be focusing properly." The nurse made a few more scribbles on her clipboard. "Well you're fine now, I'll just tell the doctor you can be discharged, we hope to see you again soon."  
  
Magus smiled inwardly, it was so nice of them to say that, considering the only reason for visiting the hospital would be because of receiving grievous injury. As the nurse left Magus had a better look round the ward, it appeared to be for serious cases only, there was a lot of emergency machinery on standby, an iron lung, a defibrillator and a dialysis machine were amongst those that Magus recognised. He twined a cable through his fingers, pretty old stuff, but still, they worked.  
  
A sharp gasp reminded Magus that there was someone other than himself in the room. He turned to see them, even though he already knew who it was. The breathing was so familiar to him, he listened to the same soft breaths as he fell asleep each night.  
  
As he suspected, the bed next to his own contained Mei. It saddened him to see her so. He had seen her sleep many times, and she had looked peaceful and happy. It was not so now. Now she seemed small and helpless and suddenly Magus missed her usual vitality. He remembered walking with her through the forest and seeing her childish fascination with every little thing. He remembered shared moments as recently as last night, as she nuzzled against him and curled up to sleep. But this was no sleep that she was in, her naturally pale skin was drained to the colour of ivory and there was an eerie stillness to her. A voice sounded sympathetically in Magus' ear.  
  
"We're sorry, we can't seem to wake your girlfriend up, we fixed her ribs and she is sound of body, but this has all the classic signs of a coma I'm afraid."  
  
The nurse had come back into the room, and Magus had been too deep in thought to notice, he even ignored her calling Mei his girlfriend.  
  
"Does it hurt at all?" He asked "Does she feel any pain while she is like this?"  
  
"I don't think she can feel anything right now." The nurses tone was apologetic "We still don't know much about comas. But it is widely believed that they can still hear you."  
  
"I see."  
  
"I'll leave you two alone, you're free to go anytime you wish Mr Black, but if you want to stay with your girlfriend for a while its perfectly alright."  
  
"Thank you nurse, I think I'll stay with her, you never know, maybe she'll wake up for me."  
  
The nurse nodded and left without a further word, and Magus was left alone in the oppressive hospital room, the only sounds were the beeps of the machines and Mei's gentle breathing.  
  
"Is it true?" He asked her "Can you really hear me?" There was no response but he carried on talking anyway. "I'm sorry Mei, I really am, it was a foolish mistake to take you with me to the arena. I never even considered that you might get hurt and now look what happened." He clasped her small hand in his, it was limp and too cold. A tear crept unbidden to the corner of Magus' eye "I'm so sorry Mei, can you please forgive me?" There was no answer as a single tear strolled down Magus' cheek, he brushed it away and sat himself beside Mei on the bed "If you don't wake up, I will never forgive myself." He whispered "Never." And then he fell silent, just sitting there holding the hand of the fragile little girl he had grown to care for, and suddenly he regretted not holding her hand while she was awake.  
  
Mei's dreams were troubled and this time should couldn't wake up. She floated in unending darkness and wished desperately for this dream to be over, all she wanted was to wake up surrounded by the warmth and safety that Magus represented. A figure appeared in the darkness. As Mei began to pick out the features she also began to recognise this figure, it was herself! Wearing such a tacky green outfit, green was definitely not her colour. The other self didn't even greet her, it just immediately asked her questions  
  
"Why do you like him anyway?"  
  
Mei pondered this for a moment "I don't know, he's just so big and brave and strong, but really nice too."  
  
"Nice? You think he is nice? He killed people for money, you were better off chasing butterflies."  
  
Mei shook her head "He wouldn't do that anymore, he isn't like that at all, he's my big brave samurai come to save me from everything."  
  
"Oh really? What was he saving you from when he took you to the arena? What was he saving you from when he left you behind to fight the dragon? He almost got you killed twice."  
  
"But, but... He didn't mean too!"  
  
"Don't you think that's worse? He wasn't even thinking about you, he's just another selfish man, take my advice, you're better off without him." The green clad Mei disappeared back into the darkness from whence she came.  
  
"But, I need him." Mei said miserably "He's my samurai and I need him."  
  
Crimson crashed down into his chair in front of the TV, he couldn't remember being so drained since his first day of boot camp training. Alice was similarly exhausted and lay flat on the floor welcoming the hard metal that cooled her skin. Tatsu was nowhere to be found, where could he have gotten to? Normally he was there waiting for Alice to return, usually because he was hungry. But Alice didn't have the energy to dwell up those thoughts. What currently consumed her thoughts was Magus, what had happened to him back there? She had met people who could intimidate with their overwhelming presence but Magus had inspired more than fear in her, he was a dread terror that she shuddered to think of, he had seemed so friendly before, so... normal.  
  
"What happened to him Crimson?" She asked almost rhetorically "He seemed like a good man, at least as good a man as an assassin could be." She amended  
  
"I think he is still a good man." Crimson weighed his words carefully "and not just for an assassin, he is a good person, better than many I've met."  
  
"But what he did in the arena today" Alice's voice faltered just thinking about it.  
  
"I think he is also a tortured man, it's not my business to pry into his past, but I think something terrible happened to him."  
  
"Maybe, but you couldn't smell what I could, when he did all his strange floating and all that, he didn't smell like a person anymore, he just smelled of evil."  
  
"He smelled of evil?"  
  
"Its really hard to explain, he didn't even smell of something that was evil, like those sharks did. It was just the only thing I could smell about him was this horrible evilness. You couldn't hear what I did either."  
  
"And that was?"  
  
"When he spoke, there were all these whispers saying other things, he didn't say any of the things he said, but that was what we all heard."  
  
"He didn't say any of the things he said?" Crimson sounded both puzzled and amused.  
  
"It's really stupid I know, I should stop talking about it, it doesn't make any sense."  
  
"No, it doesn't, but you keep thinking about it. When it makes sense you can tell me what you've figured out."  
  
"I'll do that." Alice smiled "But I'm too tired to do any figuring, I just want to sleep."  
  
Crimson nodded his agreement and waited a moment while Alice got changed into her sleeping garments, she was very insistent on her privacy and wouldn't remove so much as a sock in the presence of another. Just as Crimson was certain she was done changing and that he wouldn't be burned to a crisp for entering at an embarrassing moment, there was a knock on the door.  
  
"If that's Tatsu, tell him I'm not going to cook today." Alice called from the bedroom.  
  
But when Crimson opened the door it wasn't Tatsu, it was the government official from before. Crimson looked down at the shorter man.  
  
"Yes? May I help you?" He asked coolly  
  
Even this less than warm welcome failed to remove the small mans pomp  
  
"Following your victory in the pit fights you have been awarded these items for your achievement." He produced a capsule from a pocket hidden in the folds of his clothing. "Good day to you ranger Crimson, best of luck in the fights to come."  
  
Crimson closed the door on the small man and took the capsule to the table he pressed the button on the side of it and it disgorged its compressed contents, a few mates and fluids tumbled out, followed by a pair of assaults, a pole, a pair of knives, a reinforcing unit and a small pile of meseta. Crimson handed the assaults and the knives to his MAG and slotted the reinforcing unit into his armour, he was fairly certain that it was a marksman's arm. Madhu chirped its agreement. Alice could keep the pole, she had helped a lot in the fight and without her he would have been dead from that stab through his side. He also piously swore to give her a percentage of the meseta, but he still scooped all of it up and handed it to Madhu. He leaned the pole against the wall with Alice's other possessions and went to bed. Alice was already fast asleep before he got there.  
  
Mei floated in the darkness, her mind dwelling upon the things she had said to herself. Was it really alright for her to like Magus? He didn't seem to like her back in quite the same way. Was it okay to like someone even if they didn't like you? She wished someone would help her find the answer. As if responding to her will a figure formed out of the darkness. This one wasn't another Mei, it was too tall, but its taste in clothing wasn't much better than the Mei in green's, they were wearing a red and black dress that flowed down to their ankles, Mei regarded them critically.  
  
"You know that dress isn't quite your colour or style."  
  
The man looked down at himself with obvious amusement playing across his face "Yes I could do with a new dress, but I would much rather that you called it a robe."  
  
"Sorry" Mei blushed at her mistake "I thought your robe was a dress, it does look a bit like one."  
  
"I suppose it does" The man agreed "Tea?" He produced a steaming cup of herbal tea, seemingly from nowhere.  
  
"I don't sit down to drink with strangers."  
  
"Come now, if I was a stranger then I couldn't be here, after all, how could someone you've never met be inside your mind?"  
  
"This is in my mind?" Mei asked "It's really empty in here."  
  
The man could not hold back his laughter as Mei burned with embarrassment at her statement. "No no Mei, this isn't all that there is to your mind, this is just an empty corner of it. Do you wish to see your mind as it really is?"  
  
Mei nodded enthusiastically and the man smiled at her, he waved his hand and the darkness parted. Suddenly there were images flickering by, too fast to recognise, there were also sounds to accompany them, noises that were jumbled together in a meaningless disharmony of words sounds and thoughts. Mei screwed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears, but to no avail. After a few moments she begged Matherson to make it stop, and so he did, with a casual wave of his hand the images disappeared and the terrible noise ceased. Mei was again plunged into darkness.  
  
"All of that is going on in my head?" She asked incredulously "All at the same time?"  
  
"Yes indeed, those are your thoughts as and when they occur to you."  
  
"But that's not possible, if my mind was doing that all the time everyday I wouldn't be able to think of anything at all, I couldn't understand any of those things."  
  
"The mind of a human being is truly a remarkable thing, yours even more so."  
  
"What do you mean by that?"  
  
"I'm not allowed to tell you, it would be against the rules."  
  
"What rules?"  
  
"I'm not allowed to tell you that either." Matherson smiled at her "Tea?"  
  
This time Mei did accept his offer of tea, it had been a long while since she had had any, for some reason Magus never brought any, and with his strict ruling on caffeine she doubted he would let her have any anyway. The two forces sat in silence for a while sipping at their tea and Mei could feel the days stresses fading away. She drained her cup to the dregs and set it down on a floor that strictly speaking didn't exist.  
  
"If you can't tell me anything, then why are you here?" She asked Matherson pointedly  
  
"I'm not too certain myself, but I have been told to watch over you and a few others."  
  
"Told by who?" Mei sighed before Matherson could answer "I suppose you aren't allowed to tell me."  
  
"That's right, I'm sorry to keep you in the dark, but there are rules that have to be followed."  
  
"Is there anything you can tell me?"  
  
Matherson appeared to think deeply on this one "Light makes darkness, a pair exists but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever."  
  
"I already know that!" Mei complained "You're the one who told me, and it still doesn't make any sense at all."  
  
"And none of the images or sounds made sense did they? But your mind still uses them and it still works."  
  
"Do you enjoy being mean to me like this?"  
  
"No I would much rather tell you everything, but if I broke the rules then that would make me no better than the other side."  
  
"The other side?"  
  
Matherson lifted his hand to his mouth in a pantomime expression of having made a mistake "Oh dear, I think that might have broke a rule."  
  
"You won't get in trouble for it." Mei said confidently "nobody can hear what you say because you're only speaking in my mind."  
  
Matherson shook his head "That's not quite true Mei, no matter where you are, somebody is watching you, there will be repercussions even for such a tiny bit of information, but I shall face the consequences, I believe it is worth it."  
  
"But you've hardly told me anything at all." Mei protested  
  
"True, I only hope it is enough." Matherson gave one last cryptic smile and began to fade back into the nothingness that he had appeared from.  
  
"Wait, you have to tell me what it means, you're in trouble already, it would only make it a little bit worse." Mei reached out in an attempt to seize the hem of Matherson's robe, but even as her hand closed around it, it became as insubstantial as mist and her hand passed through it."  
  
"Don't forget Mei, reincarnation goes forever." With these parting words Matherson vanished completely, the only sign that he had ever been there in the first place were the two china cups that he left behind.  
  
Mei Wrapped her arms around her knees, it was suddenly colder than it had been.  
  
"I still think her was wearing a dress." She whispered quietly to herself. There was no need for her to whisper, she could have screamed it at the top of her lungs, there was nobody around to hear. Tatsu awoke in a strange room. Weapons adorned the walls and the floor was bare, how could he have possibly gone to sleep without even a pillow beneath his head? He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. As his mind adjusted to its new state of consciousness he remembered where he was. Chimpus' hotel room. He had slept on the living room floor because Chimpus had point blank refused to share his chambers with another man. There wasn't even a good reason for him to stay here, he could have walked back to his own room. Except he probably wouldn't have made it, the events of yesterday had left him bone tired and it would have badly damaged his reputation to be seen sleeping in the hallway. Damn that Chimpus, if only he could have been reasonable for once.  
  
Tatsu had thought about Alice's harsh words to him and had decided that the best course of action was to apologise to Chimpus so that the two of them could prove to Alice that they weren't irrational jerks, and that it had all been a misunderstanding. Chimpus hadn't clicked to this line of thinking.  
  
"Oh it's you, come to beg my forgiveness and admit that you don't deserve to compete with me for Alice's attentions?" Chimpus' tone was deeply mocking and thoroughly irritating. But Tatsu had gritted his teeth and forced himself to be civil.  
  
"No as a matter of fact I did not. I came to say I was sorry for how I acted the other day, and to tell you that you should also be sorry for behaving in such a way in front of a lady."  
  
"Behaving in what way? I did nothing at all, it was you who forced the fight."  
  
"Can it you moron." Tatsu's wish to be civil were rapidly evaporating as a result of his boiling temper "What happened was as much your fault as it was mine, and before we forget who exactly was it that got a fireball full in the face?"  
  
"Piss off, the only reason she didn't hit you was because you'd cry like a sissy bitch."  
  
"Oh, abuse, the forte of the nitwit, why can't you just accept my apology and then have nothing else to do with me?"  
  
"First off you beat me in combat, then you systematically point out exactly what I was doing wrong in my romantic affairs, and then you compete with me for the attention of the one girl that immediately sprang to my mind as being right for me."  
  
"I beat you because you suck at fighting, a two year old could have told you where you were going wrong with your love life, and you're pursuing what is in effect a high school crush, I don't see why I even thought I could talk to you like you were a rational human being, you're a loser Chimpus, deal with it."  
  
"That's it Tatsu, you and me, duel to the death, one hour from now."  
  
In Tatsu's opinion that was taking it a bit too far, but it was an honourably issued challenge and therefore he could not back down, he just hoped to god that Alice never found out about it.  
  
Tatsu arrived at the training room on time and ready for battle, Chimpus was also there. Tatsu had drawn his buster and assumed a battle stance without a word. Chimpus drew his gigush in a flamboyant manner that had failed to impress.  
  
"Is that compensating for something?" Tatsu asked to try and make Chimpus angry, angry people made mistakes. But there hadn't been any mistakes at all. Not throughout the entire match, it may have been that the two of them were evenly matched, or it may have been that they weren't seriously trying to kill one another. But either way the match had dragged on and on with only superficial damage being taken by either fighter. Eventually they had agreed upon a cease fire, as both of them were too exhausted to continue. After two solid hours of fighting, they discovered that they didn't hate each other nearly as much as they thought they did, and as it was now nigh on midnight Chimpus had courteously offered Tatsu a place to spend the night.  
  
Tatsu now walked down the hallways strongly regretting his acceptance of the hospitality, no dinner, no bed, no TV. What exactly did Chimpus do for entertainment anyway? It was not too hard to guess by his taste in décor, who the hell would consider weapons practice to be a method of relaxation? But no matter, Tatsu was nearly home now. He amended that, he was nearly back at the hotel room. Strange how he thought of it as more of a home than the vast quarters that he had inherited from his aunt. Maybe he just preferred the closeness of it all, one could feel very lonely in such huge rooms.  
  
The first thing he noticed upon his return was that everything was tidy. This was odd, Crimson had been home for a whole night and everything was still in its rightful place. Wait that wasn't quite true, there was a pole leaning on the wall. Tatsu sighed, weapons went on the right of MAGs not the left, he moved the offending article six inches to the right. There, perfect. A sudden thought struck him, if the place was still tidy, that meant that Crimson couldn't possibly be here. He turned out of the door and hurried on his way to the hospital, he hoped Crimson wasn't too badly hurt.  
  
-.-.-.-  
  
No more info on mysterious cloaked person, sorry, they are pretty damned mysterious. And no further mention of Psilo and company, yet again there was going to be, but I think 4000 words is long enough for a chapter. I have got hella far in .hackinfection and may complete it in a mind- bendingly short time, aww now I have to wait for the next one, or go for 100% completion, that would take a while. Oh and major PSO related discovery, the J-sword is not the most powerful weapon I own! As a matter of fact my 50% hit efficient, fully ground, legit L&K14 combats deal a lot more damage in total I have since declared that all other weapons are weak, considering they cannot deal over 4000 points of damage before a monster gets within striking distance. 


	23. Tomorrow's Genius?

Why does everyone think I cheat? I wanted a J-sword cos everybody is swinging one around and Erith was using it to clear whole rooms before I could get to anything. I don't play online, but if I did it would be totally by the rules, I hate people who go online with duped J-swords and BKBs, they are ruining the whole thing by destroying any challenge. My MAGs are not hacked, they are painstakingly raised by myself and I'm very attached to them, really I have never thrown one away, Ryzada has a store room full of the things, and eventually I will raise them all to lvl 200. Besides if I knew how to hack the game all the online dupers and cheaters out there would be receiving a swift virtual punch in the face what do you mean I'm vindictive?  
  
Psilo stood in the centre of the plain white room, everything had been checked and rechecked, there were no hidden messages, no secret panels and apparently no way out other than the way they had just came in. This soon ceased to be an option as a set of photon emitters caused a barrier to appear. Psilo sat down huffily in the middle of the room.  
  
"Well this is bloody fantastic, absolutely goddamn fabulous. We're stuck in room that has no way out, we can't even go back the way we came, and the psycho that is holding us here probably won't let us go until we die of old age."  
  
"I think we would be a lot more likely to die of starvation first" Ryzada politely pointed out.  
  
"Oh good, the thought of a slow horrible death has really cheered me up."  
  
"Yes, you've cheered up." Ryzada muttered under her breath "and the temperature in hell today is four degrees below zero."  
  
"You don't like my attitude? Well you can just piss right off and find someone else to spend time with. Oh. Wait. You can't. BECAUSE WE'RE TRAPPED IN THIS STUPID ROOM!"  
  
"Guys, c'mon we have to stick together on this one" Kilili pleaded. "If you two are fighting we'll never get out of here and I'll never get to watch TV again."  
  
"The young lady is quite right." Asrith's voice was projected from a speaker hidden somewhere in the ceiling. His hologram flicked into existence in a corner of the room.  
  
"Asrith!" Psilo was back on her feet "What have you done with my friend!"  
  
"Your friend? Oh you mean the newman girl, she is unharmed, indeed she is actually quite happy."  
  
"Sure she is." Psilo snorted "She must be so thrilled to have been kidnapped and held here against her will.  
  
"Well I admit that she has asked to leave a few times" Asrith admitted "But I assure you I treat all my guests quite well."  
  
"I find that hard to believe, since you have captured us here." Ryzada said quietly  
  
"You are not guests, you are thieves sneaking into places you don't belong." Asrith said dismissively "However you have not been "captured" as you so inelegantly put it, you are simply being detained until morning."  
  
"But why?" Kilili asked "Why have you locked us in here?"  
  
"It's quite late at night, and certainly past your bedtime." Asrith paused while Kilili yelled her denial of having a bedtime "You seem quite determined to see your friend, but you need to eat and rest."  
  
"We will NOT eat nor shall we rest until we have rescued Skyla!" Psilo yelled  
  
"Actually I am kinda tired" said Kilili "and we haven't eaten for a little while."  
  
"Shut up" Psilo snapped  
  
"You don't have to sleep if you don't want to" Asrith said diplomatically "I'm just giving you the opportunity to do so if you so wished, there will also be entertainment, and my assistant will bring you something to eat if you will but voice your preference of meal."  
  
"Entertainment?" Kilili asked  
  
"You may listen to your choice of music, or perhaps you would like to play some video games?" Neither option elicited a response "Perhaps you would like to watch TV or maybe a movie?"  
  
Kilili's eyes seemed to light up "TV? You really mean it? We can watch TV? What channels do you have?"  
  
"The full package, any channel you could possibly wish to view, you have but to ask. I also have an extensive collection of movies, spanning several genres."  
  
"Any kung fu flicks?" Kilili was practically alight with hope  
  
"Of course, I being a fan of them myself have a vast number of them, so what will your choice of movie and meal be?"  
  
"Umm if you have a copy of the shaolin monks "wheel of life" can we watch that? And I'll just have salted popcorn and some hot chocolate please."  
  
"I do have a copy of that movie, the quality isn't perfect as its quite old, you'll have to forgive me for that. Isn't cola a more traditional beverage to go with popcorn?"  
  
"I'm not allowed to drink cola, I'm not old enough." Kilili said dejectedly  
  
"Ah pardon my mistake, I thought you to be older given, your appearance, fighting skills and fine taste in film."  
  
"Really? You thought I was older? Thank you."  
  
"Kilili. Don't. Thank. The. Psychopath." Psilo said through gritted teeth  
  
"Please, you judge me too harshly, have I not seen to your comforts? Am I not extending you my full hospitality, If circumstances were different you would be welcome guests in my home." Even Psilo was having difficulty hating Asrith, he seemed so...reasonable. "What would my other two guests like for their dinner?"  
  
"I'll just have a few bread rolls with some butter if you please." Ryzada said, she bit her lip and finally gave in to temptation. "And some herbal tea please."  
  
"Herbal tea?" Asrith remarked, quite surprised by the request.  
  
"Don't you have any?"  
  
"Oh, of course I do, I just seems a strange request coming from someone who is not a force."  
  
Ryzada gave a small smile "A friend of mine introduced me to it, its good for relaxation."  
  
Asrith smiled in return "It seems that my guests are a party of good taste, I regret that we don't meet in less hostile circumstances."  
  
"I can't believe you two!" Psilo accused Kilili and Ryzada, her voice incredulous "Don't you get it? He's not our "host" we aren't "guests" this is a serious matter, and you two are siding with the enemy!"  
  
"I am to take it then that you don't want anything to eat?"  
  
"NO I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING TO EAT!" Psilo's temper was practically exploding "I want to rescue my friend and get the hell out of here, and I don't want to sit around halfway through having a damned slumber party!"  
  
"She's way too serious don't you think?" Kilili whispered to Ryzada  
  
"It's because she's old" Ryzada whispered back  
  
"I HEARD THAT AND I AM NOT OLD!" Psilo screamed at them.  
  
"It appears that I now intrude upon a conversation between the dearest of friends" Asrith's tone may or may not have held a hint of mockery "I shall leave you be until morning, my assistant will bring you the food and drinks that you requested and the movie shall begin shortly. Good night ladies, sleep well." The image flickered and disappeared. Another noise disappeared with it, Ryzada assumed that the listening devices in the room had been turned off.  
  
"Wow Asrith seems a lot nicer than I thought he would be." Kilili sounded very surprised, and Ryzada had to agree with her. Maybe Asrith really had changed? It wasn't entirely unknown. The man was eccentric bordering upon schizophrenic, but he wasn't truly a bad person, no matter how hard he tried to be.  
  
"He's trying to trick us." Psilo announced loudly "There is no other explanation for it, he's trying to sucker us into liking him so that later he can use it against us."  
  
"Or maybe he is actually worried that we might not sleep or eat while we're trying to rescue Skyla?" Kilili suggested "I think he was telling the truth about her not being unhappy."  
  
"What? You think she welcomes being a prisoner here?"  
  
"I didn't say she wasn't unwilling, just that she's not unhappy."  
  
"And what gives you that impression?"  
  
"Well we're sneaking in here to rescue our friend, maybe break a few things and definitely kick Asrith's ass, and he's feeding us and giving us a movie to watch."  
  
"He also set a pair of freak Gigoboomas on us, electrocuted all three of us, and on top of that he is toying with us like this is some sort of game to him."  
  
"It probably is." Ryzada spoke up "You were right before, he is kind of mentally ill. People like him don't think like everyone else in the world, its how they manage to live with themselves, in his mind he isn't doing anything wrong."  
  
"He's kidnapped someone!"  
  
"Yes, but he probably hasn't hurt her, and she is comfortable and well fed. He's not some inhuman monster that takes pleasure in hurting other people, and his ideas aren't bad, its just the way he does things is a little... unconventional."  
  
"He reanimates corpses and kidnaps people, that's not unconventional Ryzada, that's just wrong, he can't get away with stuff like that. He is insane and dangerous."  
  
"When people think differently to the majority they are labelled insane and dangerous, yet years later they are hailed as revolutionaries and geniuses." An unfamiliar voice said from the doorway.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Psilo demanded rudely.  
  
"I'm Kinami, the doctors assistant?" Kinami gestured with a plate of food "I've been sent to make sure your needs are seen to."  
  
"And you really believe Asrith is a revolutionary genius?" Psilo was sceptical.  
  
The photon barrier deactivated for long enough for Kinami to step inside. He set down the food and drinks. "I don't really know. Its as of yet undecided, he may be mad, he may be a genius, its entirely possible that he is both. After all, was not the first man who dreamed of flight considered a lunatic at the time?"  
  
Ryzada accepted her plate of buttered rolls and her steaming mug of herbal tea. She took a sip and scalded her tongue.  
  
"Sorry" Kinami smiled at her "I should have warned you, the tea is still very hot. As is the cocoa." Kilili set her mug down carefully.  
  
Ryzada regarded Kinami with a critical eye, he was quite a handsome man, he didn't have the chiselled good looks of a movie star, but the way his light blue hair framed his face and deepened the intensity of his eyes was very flattering. He dressed with a certain flair, his clothes were costly, but not extravagant, obviously custom made judging by the way the blue trimming matched his hair almost perfectly. He also seemed to be a fair man, not given to prejudice. Ryzada thought that he would get along well with Crimson. Thinking of the tall ranger risking his life in the tournament, without her by his side, caused Ryzada a momentary pang of sadness, she wished this job would end so that she could be with him, but it was also important to her that she help rescue Skyla, Psilo obviously missed her friend and cared for her a great deal.  
  
Kilili's mind was free of such detailed and elongated thoughts. Her study of Kinami had returned but a single fact. This guy was cute! She graciously accepted the bag of popcorn from him and began to flirt outrageously.  
  
"So Kinami." She began, her eyes down. "I bet it gets really lonely working as a lab assistant.  
  
Kinami sighed "Yes it does,I have to work such long shifts, between sleep and work I barely have any time to myself."  
  
"You poor man, don't you get time off?"  
  
"Yes, a little." Kinami admitted "I get every other weekend free."  
  
"Oh really, what do you spend your weekends doing?" Kilili leaned in a little closer as if to hear better what Kinami had to say.  
  
"Oh, most of those weekends I spend at home with my wife and child."  
  
Kilili stepped back "You're married?"  
  
"No, I just wanted to see how you'd react."  
  
"If you're quite done trying to whore yourself out to the enemy, I would appreciate it if I could get some sleep and be done with this miserable day." Psilo said from the corner of the room she had selected to sleep in.  
  
Kinami was shocked "Does she always act like this?"  
  
"From what I've seen, yes she does, it can be quite irritating." Ryzada arranged herself more comfortably and munched on a bread roll.  
  
"Aww, Psilo's not that bad once you get to know her." Kilili defended her friend.  
  
"Yes I am, I'm a complete bitch."  
  
"Well then? Shall we start the movie?" Kinami pretended to ignore Psilo for now and sat down, producing a remote from a pocket.  
  
"Yay, start the movie." Kilili clapped and took up position next to Kinami mouthing to Ryzada 'back off, he's mine' Ryzada shrugged indifferently and sat down next to Kilili, sipping at her tea now it was cool enough to drink safely.  
  
Kinami pressed a few buttons and a large TV screen appeared in the wall in front of them. Kilili clapped and cheered, but she quietened down once the movie started. Ryzada expected Kilili to be the type who talked through a film, but instead they all sat quietly, Kilili munching on her popcorn, occasionally sharing it with Kinami and Ryzada. After the movie finished they were out of both food and drink. Kinami disappeared and returned swiftly with more to eat and drink. They were enjoying a hearty discussion on which was better, kung fu or ninjitsu when Psilo came over and sat down. Everyone half expected her to yell at them for keeping her awake, but she didn't.  
  
"Can I have something to eat please?" her voice was quiet and humble, a tone Ryzada hadn't ever heard her use. Kinami proffered a plate of rolls with various fillings and Psilo gratefully accepted. After a few thoughtful mouthfuls she spoke again.  
  
"Sorry about yelling so much earlier, I didn't mean most of it."  
  
"Its alright, we understand." Kilili said sympathetically  
  
"No, no you don't" Psilo shook her head "You really couldn't understand what this is all about."  
  
"You could try to explain." Ryzada suggested "Its a lot harder to dislike someone when you know why they do they things they do."  
  
Psilo let out a heavy sigh "I suppose so." She took a breath "Skyla is my friend, but she is also more than that, most people would think its sort of weird, and I guess a lot of them would think it meant I'm a lesbian, I'm not by the way." She hastily assured "It's just that, having a famous scientist for a father, I never stayed in one place very often, we moved a lot to do all this "roaming research." What that basically meant was that whenever I got even a little settled into a place, he'd uproot me and we would go somewhere else. I never had a mother, she died in childbirth. It was just me and my dad, and he was never at home."  
  
"That's really sad." Kilili sniffed  
  
"It was, but my dad noticed it, he thought it wasn't healthy for me to be alone all the time, so he spliced some DNA together and Skyla was born, I don't know if she was just supposed to be my friend or my sister, but we got along famously, and of course whenever we moved Skyla would come with us. Me and her were together since I was 6, we were inseparable, until that bastard Asrith kidnapped her, I guess I've been a little on edge recently, especially since we are so close to getting her back."  
  
"You're certain that she was kidnapped?" Kinami sounded troubled "Asrith said she was a volunteer subject and that she was here of her own free will."  
  
Psilo shook her head "I don't think so, Skyla doesn't like labs, they remind her of how she was born. I don't care how well Asrith treats her, I know she doesn't like it here."  
  
"I've been ordered to stay with you three, so I can't go back to ask questions." Kinami said regretfully "But if Skyla would rather leave than stay here, I promise I will help you to get her out of here."  
  
"You really mean it?" Psilo's eyes were misting up with emotion "You'd help us even though Asrith is your boss?"  
  
"Of course, whether he is tomorrows genius or not, the end does not justify the means, If Skyla is here against her will then she should not be here at all."  
  
Psilo's tears shimmered in the light as she leaned forwards and hugged Kinami tightly, he looked decidedly uncomfortable at the contact.  
  
"You're more than welcome." He replied  
  
"If you don't like the idea of someone being kept here against their will, then why not go and question Asrith now?" Ryzada asked.  
  
"Because it may not be true, I don't know if Skyla wants to be here or not, it's never a good idea to act impulsively, the damage caused by a mistake is often irreparable. So I shall follow orders and stay with you as you progress through the lab and will talk to Asrith when I meet him at the end of it."  
  
Psilo released Kinami from her hug. "You're a good guy Kinami, even if you are being a bloody useless bastard right now." She wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm going to go to sleep, first one of you to wake me up before 11am tomorrow dies."  
  
Psilo went back to her corner of the room.  
  
"She is really strange" Kinami whispered, "What's up with her anyway?"  
  
Kilili shrugged "Getting all emotional, discussing her past, crying then insulting people, I'd say it was PMS."  
  
"I heard that Kilili, say it again and you'll regret it." Psilo called from across the room, from her tone it was obvious that she wasn't too serious.  
  
After that the group of four decided that it was a good idea to get some sleep. Kinami set himself up at a respectful distance from any of the girls, much to Kilili's regret, they were all soon dozing peacefully, except for Psilo, after her brief nap earlier she couldn't force her mind to shut down, she stayed awake for several more hours while thoughts danced through her head, mostly she thought of her friend, held prisoner by this madman Asrith, she vowed to be reunited with her friend, no matter what else might happen.  
  
-.-.-.-  
  
I know, an entire chapter devoted to Psilo, I'm as surprised as you are, I honestly only meant to write a bit about her and then move on to other things, but then there was the conversation with Asrith, I introduced Kinami and Psilo talked about her past, result of all that? More than 3000 words, and I've always thought 3000 words was a goodly size for a chapter, that and I wanna go to sleep too, and I wanna watch the shaolin monks wheel of life, but I can't because I need to buy the DVD, umm donations would be most welcome, seriously, I need money. 


	24. Fears

HOLY EFFING HELL! I only just realized something... I have more reviews than any other author in the PSO category of ! Man I feel successful. Oh and this fic, yeah the one I started doing just cos I was bored, is now over 140 A4 pages long, really if I remove the authors notes and rewrite a few things I could really have a novel in the works here.  
  
"I'm getting kinda bored here!" Mei complained as she tried to find something interesting to do in the vast black expanse. "Hey maybe that's how I get out of here, I'll just sit around until I'm bored out of my mind!"  
  
"Ah the simple and understated logic that only Mei Lung could possibly come up with"  
  
"Hey who's there?" Mei spun around and found herself face to face with, herself. "Oh it's you, at least you changed out of that tacky green outfit." It was true, the other Mei was now dressed entirely in a deep shade of blue.  
  
"Well if that's the kind of welcome I get I suppose I'll just be going then."  
  
"No, please stay." Mei begged "I was getting really lonely."  
  
"I'm always lonely, nobody wants to be around me."  
  
"Hey that's not true! Magus likes you, I mean me, I mean us."  
  
"You're sure? he doesn't always look happy to see us."  
  
Mei bit her lip and thought for a while "I guess he has other stuff to think about sometimes, but there are always other people to talk to, Mery, Crimson, even Raven talked to us a bit, and he didn't like talking to anyone."  
  
"You never thought that maybe we just irritated them? Maybe nobody really wants us around, they just tolerate us because they have to?"  
  
Mei hadn't thought about that at all, but she would now, for quite a while, as the blue dressed Mei disappeared again. When was someone going to let her out of here? It wasn't very fun having only yourself to talk to."  
  
Tatsu raced up the hospital stairs taking them two at a time. The nurse at the counter had said that only two people had checked in last night, the man was fine but the force girl was still in intensive care. He hoped to god that it wasn't anything life threatening. He raced down the hallway, his footsteps echoing in the quiet building. He slowed down as he reached the IC ward, he shouldn't have been running in a hospital anyway he reprimanded himself, sick people needed peace and quiet. He opened the door quietly and stepped inside.  
  
"What do you want?" A voice asked despondently  
  
"Oh, sorry I thought a friend of mine was here." Tatsu apologized, feeling very foolish indeed.  
  
"Tatsu is it?"  
  
"Yes, that's me."  
  
"Then one of your friends might be here."  
  
"What do you mean?" Tatsu asked curiously and stepped closer to the bed that the person was sitting on, it took him a moment to recognize the person lying in the bed, probably because she wasn't bouncing around like she usually was.  
  
"Mei?" Tatsu said as if it were a sudden revelation "That means you're, Magus! How have you been?"  
  
"Better off than Mei, and please don't use my name, I'm trying to keep it a secret."  
  
"Oh, right, what happened to Mei anyway?"  
  
"If you must know, a monster we were fighting threw her through a wall and now she is in a coma and as a matter of fact it's all my fault and I feel horrible about it"  
  
"Umm sorry to hear of it, I hope she gets better soon, it doesn't seem right, her just lying still."  
  
"No, it doesn't does it? I can't stand seeing her like this, you can't imagine the guilt."  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, how do you figure that it's your fault?"  
  
"I picked her as my ally for the fight even thought I knew it would be dangerous, I didn't look out for her while the fight was going on. If I'd have chosen Mery then she would still be alright, who else could be to blame?"  
  
"I always find it helps to blame god." Tatsu smiled "But sometimes there's nobody to blame at all, you can't go through life dwelling upon past mistakes, what's the point? you'll never be able to change what happened, so I'd concentrate on solving the problem at hand. Mei isn't going to wake up just because you're sitting here feeling sorry for yourself."  
  
"And she won't wake up if I do anything else either. There is nothing I can do and I hate it."  
  
"Of course there is something you can do, you can sit here hoping she recovers."  
  
"Why not, I've got no other ideas that would work." Magus said bitterly.  
  
Tatsu shrugged "When all else fails there's always faith, sometimes belief is so strong it can change reality. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go home, Alice will be waiting for me, it was good to see you again, when Mei wakes up, tell her I said hi." Tatsu turned away and walked out of the room. Magus listened to his footsteps fade away. He looked down at Mei and smoothed back a stray strand of hair, she had always insisted that she look just right.  
  
"Faith" Magus repeated to himself. If it was true that faith was all he had left to hold to, he wasn't going to let go anytime soon.  
  
Mei felt another stirring in the shadows behind her. She stood to face the figure as it emerged. As she suspected it was herself again, this time dressed in red.  
  
"Umm hello?" She greeted the newest her  
  
"What the hell do you want?" The other Mei snapped  
  
"Sorry, I was just saying hi."  
  
"Yeah? Well maybe I don't want to talk to you? You think of that? huh? did you?"  
  
"Umm well no, all the other Mei's wanted to talk, and I'm the only other person here, so I didn't think you could be here for any other reason."  
  
"Then you shouldn't bother thinking should you! So damned self centered, little miss "I'm the center of the bloody universe", nobody could POSSIBLY have something better to do than listen to your childish whining!"  
  
"I'm sorry, really I am, I didn't mean to make you angry." Mei had backed down so far that she was sitting again.  
  
"You've got no spine either! God forbid somebody might be angry at you, no no no, little Mei Lung has to be liked by everybody."  
  
Mei drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Look at you! you're godamned pathetic, you know that? No wonder nobody loves you! you're a miserable whining cowardly bitch."  
  
Tears were streaming down Mei's face tracing silvery lines down her ivory skin. "Magus..." She said quietly  
  
"What was that? I didn't hear you."  
  
"Magus." Mei said between sobs "He loves me."  
  
"Loves you so much he'd leave you to fight dragons? Loves you so much that he's not even here for you? He's never even said it to you has he? Be honest, has Magus ever kissed you? Ever said that he loves you?"  
  
Mei buried her face in her knees and sobbed louder.  
  
"Didn't think so." The red dressed Mei disappeared leaving Mei alone in the dark, tears streaming down her cheeks.  
  
Mei had cried before. When she was growing up cruel children made her cry. When she was at school the exams made her cry, when the first boy she ever had a crush on rejected her, he had made her cry. But never before in her entire life had Mei made herself cry.  
  
Magus started at the slight noise that came from the door to the ward being opened. Why did people keep intruding on his grief? Couldn't they see that he wanted to be left alone? He shot a quick glance at the doorway to see who was there, it was the nurse.  
  
She carried her clipboard ever present clipboard close to her chest, cradling it almost protectively. Magus got to his feet.  
  
"Why are you here?" He asked bluntly "Do the doctors have news for me? Or have I simply stayed too long?"  
  
"No, that's not it." The nurse looked extremely uncomfortable.  
  
"What then?"  
  
"Well umm, whilst you were unconcious, I had to check for any kind of brain trauma, you know, to make sure everything was alright?"  
  
"Yes." Magus tensed, he felt that he knew what was about to come next, he wasn't wrong.  
  
"Well I sort of had to take your mask off, because the metal would have interfered with the machine, and your face looked sort of familiar so I ran a check on the computer." She paused  
  
"And you found out exactly who I am?" Magus finished for her.  
  
"You aren't mad at me are you?" The nurse bit her lower lip. The words and the action reminded Magus suddenly of Mei. He got to his feet and advanced on the now frightened nurse.  
  
"You give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now." He threatened her.  
  
The nurse backed away. "Please I won't tell anyone, it's part of the doctor/patient confidentiality agreement, I won't tell anyone anything about you."  
  
Magus stood still "Good, for a moment there I thought you were going to start spouting some drivel how someone would find your body and that I would never get away with it. Because I would you know."  
  
"I know." The nurse agreed "You escaped a ship wide man hunt by the army and survived several hunters who were contracted with your assassination."  
  
"Yes, and there is still quite a nice sum of money on my head, I should probably kill you just to be certain that you don't give in to temptation and "accidentally" let slip my identity."  
  
"I already promised you that I wouldn't do that." The nurse was now fearful again.  
  
"I'll tell you what, If you can guess why I don't want to kill you, then I won't do it. If you come up with a stupid answer then they probably won't ever find your corpse."  
  
"Umm well maybe it's because of..." The nurse faltered and then abruptly changed her answer "It's because you're not a murderer."  
  
"That's right" Magus said smiling at her "I don't want to kill you or anyone else."  
  
"But that poor soldier, they found you standing over him even as he died and his blood was all over you."  
  
Magus sighed "A horrible coincidence, I'll admit that I wasn't being all too pleasant to that man but I never wanted him to die."  
  
"So what really happened." The nurse sat down with her clipboard in one hand and her pencil in the other.  
  
"First lets get rid of that." Magus said and took the pencil from her "You have a bad habit of scribbling everything down and I'd rather somebody didn't find this conversation in the trash somewhere."  
  
"Oh, sorry." The nurse hastily set her clipboard aside  
  
"Quite alright." Magus reassured her "Now where to begin? Well I don't think you need to know all the details, a lot of it I would rather was kept quiet. All you need to know is that a man I greatly admired was killed, by whom? I still don't know. But that soldier did. I saw him drinking in a bar and something in my memory just clicked and I remembered him as being there when that friend of mine was killed. I acted friendly towards the soldier and brought him a few drinks, tried to loosen his tongue with alcohol, that didn't work. He told me that he had best be getting back to his barracks and that I had best stop asking sensitive questions. Anyway I shadowed him for a little while and when he took a turn into an alley way I took my chance and pounced on him. I roughed him up a bit and demanded that he tell me what he knew, the first minute or so he denied everything but after I broke a few things he was almost ready to talk. Only thing was the second he opened his mouth to tell me who killed my friend something strange happened with his eyes and he just died. A second or two after that and a couple of his buddies came round the corner, I figure they were worried about him going back so drunk. But all they saw was me covered in his blood and him stone cold dead. I didn't even think, I just ran off as fast as I could and spent the next few years of my life hiding."  
  
The nurse had listened to Magus' monologue without saying a word, now she spoke in whisper.  
  
"How old were you?"  
  
Magus scratched his chin "Not too sure, think I might have been 17 maybe."  
  
"What did you mean by something strange happened to his eyes?" The nurse asked "There are a few toxins that would make pupils dilate or the iris change color before death."  
  
"Know of any that would turn a mans eyes pure black?"  
  
"Dexycotamine has been known to affect the iris pigment, and it is lethal even in small doses."  
  
"I mean the whole of their eyes, iris and whites just suddenly turning black."  
  
"I'm sorry, I've never heard of a case like that." The nurse sounded sincerely apologetic.  
  
"You're taking this pretty well" Magus noted.  
  
"What?" the nurse was confused.  
  
"Most people would be freaking out a little about being in the same room as a infamous murderer."  
  
The nurse shrugged "You're just another patient to me, I became a nurse to heal people not judge them, and besides, its not true that you're a murderer, I believe you when you say you're innocent."  
  
"Thanks" Magus smiled.  
  
There was a small gasp from Mei as she lay in her bed, it was the first signs of life she had shown all through the day and night. Magus hurried over to her and clasped her hand reassuringly. There was no further movement from the little girl, but Magus would always swear that she squeezed his hand back.  
  
"I should leave you two alone again." The nurse moved towards the door. "Thank you for trusting me Magus."  
  
"It's not a problem, but don't ever call me that outside of this room."  
  
He received no answer as the nurse had slipped quietly away.  
  
-.-.-.-  
  
Okay, I know, it took me FOREVER to write this chapter, must have seemed even longer after my brief burst of creativity. My copy of MS word is messing right up and I don't have a clue why. I've had to retype this chapter in WordPad. I hate WordPad, I have to manually check for all spelling errors, this sucks cos I use big words a lot. My money situation is getting worse, I had some money, but then I spent it on buying .hack manga style book things. Ah well, some day I'll go and get a real job, until then I'll keep pretending to be a writer. 


	25. What is Truth Exactly?

Wow, I've had my first case of writers block! That and MS word won't display word files right. Now it's two days later, I'm over it! It feels so damn weird to suddenly be inspired, lol there I was listening to music and all of a sudden, hallelujah I'm smacked square in the brain by an idea, damn it's good to be smart. MS word STILL won't read word files, but this chapter is now in the form of a rich text document, Me 1, computer 0.  
  
Magus had lost count of how many hours he had spent waiting for Mei to recover, the number of times he had ran the ribbons that held her hair in place through his fingers, the number of times a sudden gasp of breath from the tiny girl sent his hopes up, only to dash them again when she still didn't open her eyes. But it didn't matter how long it took, he would be there when she finally woke up, he wasn't going anywhere.  
  
Alice was woken up as a result of a gentle shaking of her shoulder, she opened her eyes blearily .  
  
"Tatsu?" She asked "When did you get back?" She looked down and realised that her blanket was down to her waist, she grabbed it and dragged it up so it covered her from neck to toe. "And what do you think you're doing looking at me while I'm sleeping!"  
  
"I got back at about two in the morning, and you looked like you were far too warm so I moved your blanket a bit, what's the problem? You have clothes on."  
  
"It doesn't matter if I have clothes on!" Alice blushed "I just don't like people seeing more of me than I want them to, just call it a quirk of mine."  
  
Tatsu raised an eyebrow "If you say so, I just came to wake you up because I'd like you to get lunch ready if that's not a problem."  
  
"Lunch? What's the time?"  
  
"About three in the afternoon, I would have woke you up sooner but Crimson said you were really tired."  
  
Alice shot out of bed, completely disregarding her earlier statement about privacy "Oh my god I forgot, I'm going to be so late!"  
  
"Late for what?" Tatsu asked puzzled.  
  
"My qualifying match! It starts at five!" Alice was digging through a box that was full of her clothes.  
  
Tatsu stood silent trying to work out exactly why it was going to take two hours for Alice to be ready for her fight. After a minute or so of frantic searching Alice pulled out a clean white dress with yellow embroidery. She turned round in the middle of lifting her night shirt and saw Tatsu still standing there.  
  
"What are you still doing here!" She yelled "Get out, shoo."  
  
Tatsu left the room rapidly hearing Alice mutter something about men. He'd only seen just a little higher than her belly button, but it was still one of the loveliest midriffs that he could remember seeing. He blushed a little deeper at the thought. He sat at the dining table and told Crimson the bad news.  
  
"We're going to have to make lunch too, Alice is going to be in a match."  
  
"WHAT!" Crimsons tone was one of deepest shock "I don't even know how to make lunch, you remember what happened with breakfast."  
  
Tatsu remembered all too clearly, In fact breakfast was very close to coming back up to deliver a personal reminder, It was now burned into Tatsu's memory that kidney beans, no matter how similar they looked, were no substitute for baked beans and that "Some stuff I found growing on a tree." Does not equate to mushrooms.  
  
"Maybe we should eat out for lunch?" Tatsu suggested  
  
"That's a great idea!" Crimson was hugely enthusiastic "So? Where's the nearest restaurant?"  
  
"There isn't one anywhere near here."  
  
"WHAT!" Crimson was beginning to feel that this phrase was being used a bit too often in this conversation.  
  
"Closest thing they have is a pretty big bar, I checked it out while I was looking around, it serves all kinds of food and the people there are quite interesting."  
  
"Great" Crimson said with heavy sarcasm "We get to enjoy the company of alcoholics, eat badly cooked food and get cancer from smoke inhalation."  
  
"It's a reputable establishment, they hire fully qualified chefs and there is such thing as a non-smoking area. Why do you do this every time?"  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Every time I suggest a place to eat you start acting like I had proposed that we go eat out of a dumpster."  
  
"That would be because every time I agree with you on where we are going, something bad happens, there's a big fight, something blows up, we get blamed and spend a week or two in prison waiting for somebody to bail us out."  
  
At this moment Alice came into the room, now properly dressed.  
  
"What are you guys arguing about now?"  
  
"I want to go to the bar for lunch, but Crimson won't agree with me just because it's my idea." Tatsu whined  
  
"No, I won't agree because I don't want to get thrown into a cell for disturbing the peace."  
  
"Just go with him Crimson, it's either that or you sit here and starve."  
  
"I'd rather starve" Crimson stated adamantly, his stomach emitted a loud growl "Damned traitorous vital organs." He muttered sourly  
  
"Nothing bad will happen, I'm sure it will just be a nice meal in a nice place, unless Tatsu offends someone with unwanted staring."  
  
"What?" Crimson was confused  
  
"Oh just ask the lecherous one himself." Alice swept out of the room and into the bathroom.  
  
Tatsu had the good grace to look thoroughly embarrassed "I kinda broke one of her privacy rules."  
  
"Really?" Crimson asked  
  
"Yes, it wasn't my fault though, she was getting changed and forgot I was there for a bit."  
  
"Sooo?" Crimson asked  
  
"What?" Tatsu looked at him suspiciously  
  
"What is she like under those clothes?"  
  
"Crimson!"  
  
"Hey, I'm only messing around, you don't have to take everything so seriously ya know."  
  
"You're right" Tatsu said grudgingly "And under her clothes, she's perfect."  
  
"I can hear you you know!" Alice shouted from the bathroom "And he didn't see much Crimson, so don't go getting ideas in your head you pervert!"  
  
"Hmm, you would have thought that the people who built this place could have made the walls just a little bit thicker." Crimson said, an amused smile on his face."  
  
"What's taking up so much time?" Tatsu asked loudly "Nobody takes two hours to get ready for a fight, you must have enough spare time to make us all some food."  
  
"If you must know, I'm making myself look pretty, I need to look my best for this fight, it's going to be recorded as archive footage."  
  
"You already look pretty" Tatsu said desperately  
  
"Thank you for the compliment" Alice called back "But you're still a pervert, I'm still getting ready for the fight and my looks still come before your stomach, so there."  
  
"This isn't fair." Tatsu said miserably  
  
Crimson's stomach growled again "Fine, we'll go to the stupid bar, but I'm warning you now stomach, if I get food poisoning, its all your fault."  
  
"Crimson?" Tatsu asked  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Are you talking to your stomach?"  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, is there something wrong with that?"  
  
"No, not at all." Tatsu sighed  
  
Crimsons stomach rumbled once more "Yeah, what he said." Crimson grinned broadly "Anyways, are we going or not?"  
  
"Of course." Tatsu walked out of the front door with Crimson close behind "Though I'm not too sure that it's fair to inflict you on other people" Tatsu muttered.  
  
There was another shift in the ether of Mei's mind, this time it came from the left of her. She turned her head to look at the new arrival, she couldn't see them clearly so she wiped her tears on her sleeve and had another look, The new person was dressed very darkly and her face couldn't be seen, all Mei could make out was a single lock of silvery white hair and the outline of a slim oval face.  
  
"Are you here to yell at me too?" Mei sniffed.  
  
"No, I'm here to talk to you." The woman's voice was warm and reassuring, despite this, Mei didn't trust her.  
  
"You don't look like me, everyone else I've talked to looked the same as I do." Mei's tone was half statement and half accusation.  
  
"You mean Matherson hasn't visited?" The woman's voice showed mild surprise.  
  
"Oh he was here, but he really wasn't very helpful, he kept talking about rules and things and the only thing he did tell me, I already knew, oh and he mentioned another side, but I don't know what he was talking about." Mei found herself relaxing in this woman's company.  
  
"Ah yes, that's just like him, interfering when he isn't wanted and providing no information when it's needed." The woman paused "I believe you would like to know more about what's going on."  
  
Mei nodded  
  
"Well then, ask me a few questions and I'll see what I can do about answering them."  
  
"Why am I inside my own mind?" Mei asked  
  
"You had to ask the most difficult question first." Somehow the woman smiled with her voice "I'm not certain, but I think it might be because you're different to other people somehow, special I suppose."  
  
"Really? How am I different?"  
  
"Another difficult question, you are different... just because you aren't the same as anyone else."  
  
"I know that" Mei wrinkled her nose "That's what being different is."  
  
"Not exactly." Another voice smile "any other questions?"  
  
"Umm who are you and why are you here?"  
  
"I don't think I will be giving you my real name, at the present moment that wouldn't be wise. You may call me Kali."  
  
"Kali..." Mei frowned "The Indian goddess of darkness?"  
  
"Kali is also the goddess of many other things, but very few people think of her as such, and you'll probably want your other question answering, I'm here because you need to know the truth."  
  
"The truth? The truth about what?"  
  
"About everything" Kali's voice was low and conspiratorial "About why all these bad things are happening, why there is so much evil about."  
  
"So why is there so much bad stuff happening recently?"  
  
"It's because of your leaders, all those people in positions of power. They're playing with forces and energies that they just don't understand, they're doing things that are disturbing the universe itself."  
  
"Really? That's terrible! They can't be allowed to do that!"  
  
"Exactly, that's the other thing I needed to talk to you about. When the time comes, we will need all the right thinking people of pioneer two to help us solve all these problems, we don't need you right now, but some day it might be very important that you are on our side."  
  
"On your side?" Mei echoed "You're the other side that Matherson mentioned! But if Matherson doesn't want you to stop the bad things, that means he is on the bad side, and Matherson doesn't feel like a bad guy would." She mentally added the 'but you do' part.  
  
"Why must everything be divided into good and bad?" Kali asked "It is only people who decide to pigeonhole things as right or wrong. But which side is being honest with you and telling you what you need to know and which side is keeping secrets? Who is telling you the truth?"  
  
"Would this be the real truth, or what you have decided is true?" Mei asked politely "It's only people who decide to pigeonhole things as true or false."  
  
"I can see you're going to be a difficult one to win Mei Lung, just you keep thinking about this, I'll be back to see what path you choose." Kali began to disappear and her voice dropped to a whisper "I think it's about time for you to wake up Mei Lung." She disappeared completely.  
  
"wake up?" Mei said bitterly "I've been trying to do that for ages."  
  
All of a sudden she felt as if she was melting, she looked down at her hands. The edges of her fingers were becoming indistinct and the colour was fading slowly. So this is what it felt like for all those other Mei's? She smiled dreamily as she realised that they weren't disappearing, they were just fusing back into her mind.  
  
Mei's breathing strengthened and her heart rate increased. Magus noticed these signs almost before the computers did. He gripped her hand almost tight enough to crush Mei's delicate fingers.  
  
"Please wake up Mei, I'll do anything you want, just as long as you wake up." He implored her, and then, in Magus' eyes at least, a miracle happened. Mei opened her eyes and smiled at him.  
  
"Good morning Magus." She said, still smiling dreamily.  
  
Magus pulled her up and hugged her tightly to his chest, normally he would have been embarrassed by such closeness, but right now he was so happy that embarrassment was completely forgotten.  
  
"You're alright." He breathed over and over "You're alright."  
  
"Of course I'm alright silly, I just had a bad dream, that's all." Nonetheless Mei was hugging back almost as tightly.  
  
Magus ended the hug and held Mei at arms length, both hands on her shoulders. "What did you dream about this time?" He asked.  
  
Mei was a little surprised, usually Magus simply shrugged off her dreams as unimportant. "I was all alone in the dark, and people kept appearing to talk to me, the man in the dress came back again-"  
  
"The force." Magus gently reminded her.  
  
"The force in the dress." Mei nodded "and there was a woman in a black robe, she was really familiar, like I'd seen her before, and she told me all these things, about sides and how the leaders of pioneer were bad men and things like that, but i really didn't trust her, she didn't seem like a good person."  
  
The woman in a black robe, Magus mused to himself, he'd seen her too, he could still remember the feeling of cold steel as it pressed against his neck, maybe it wasn't the same woman? Maybe there was a cult of revolutionaries aboard pioneer? "Was there anything else in your dream Mei?" He asked.  
  
"There was me, lots of other me's some of them talked to me and some didn't, some were really mean." A frown marred her brow "Magus?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you love me?"  
  
Magus was shocked by the suddenness of the question, did he love her? How could he possibly know if he did or didn't? How did you tell if you loved somebody if you have never loved anyone in your whole life? He studied her face, her Ivory skin, her delicately pointed ears, was there some newman blood in her? Her silky soft white hair. It was a little out of place, but the early morning look was still flattering. She was really pretty Magus admitted, but did he love her?  
  
His pager beeped, MEET ME IN ARENA 3 he threw it across the room, this was no time for interruptions. He looked into her eyes, a lovely shade of light blue, as Magus looked he noticed their sparkle, uh oh, he had taken too long to answer.  
  
"You don't love me do you?" Mei burst into tears and fell into Magus who caught her and cradled her slight frame to himself, suddenly he felt really terrible for causing her to cry, as if some part of her hurt was being shared by him.  
  
"I do love you Mei, but I don't know in what way, you're like the little sister I never had, but I don't think of you as family exactly."  
  
Mei sat up and sniffed, wiping away her tears on the white hospital pyjamas. "So you so love me?"  
  
"Of course, nobody could spend time with you and not love you in some way or another." Magus felt this to be true, annoying though she was at times, her childish innocence and carefree affections made it impossible to dislike her.  
  
Suddenly Mei was grinning at him maliciously.  
  
"What?" Magus asked, the grin was making him feel uncomfortable, whatever happened next would not be good.  
  
"You owe me something." Mei's grin turned into a sweet smile, Magus found the smile to be even more disconcerting.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You said that you would do whatever I wanted you to, If I woke up, and I'm awake."  
  
Uh oh, he had said that hadn't he? "What do you want?" He braced himself.  
  
"I want you and me, to..." Mei paused for a brief moment, even the slight pause tortured Magus as he thought about all the possible things she could demand. "Go on a date!" Mei finished.  
  
"Umm are you sure that's what you want?" Magus tried desperately to find a way out of it, he wasn't all that experienced at the whole dating thing.  
  
"It's not to much is it? Or are you not that grateful that I'm okay?"  
  
Damn, she'd got him there, there was no possible way to back out of this one. His pager beeped again from across the room.  
  
"I'd love to go out with you Mei, but you have to give me some time to decide where we are going okay?"  
  
"Kay"  
  
Phew, he'd won himself some breathing room  
  
"You can tell me where we're going tomorrow"  
  
Magus sighed, defeated. He was constantly being out smarted by Mei and was used to it by now. "Hey, we should go back to our hotel room, we can't stay in the hospital all the time."  
  
Mei looked around as if she had only just noticed where they were "You're right" She smiled cheerfully and slipped out of bed. "Do you think we get to keep the pyjamas? They look really good and me and I like they way they feel against my skin.  
  
Mei did look lovely in her hospital pyjamas, but Magus wished she wouldn't talk about her skin. The embarrassment from the close hugging was catching up with him. Even after two days in a hospital bed Mei still smelled nice. Okay, he really had to stop thinking things like that.  
  
"I'll go ask the doctor while I get our clothes back, and I'll get you a mirror too."  
  
"Why would I need a mirror?"  
  
"Your hair is a little messed up from being in bed and all the hugging." Magus explained.  
  
"Oh my god! Why didn't you tell me my hair was out of place! How could you say you love me when I don't have my make up on! I need a brush!"  
  
"Calm down Mei, it's not the end of the world."  
  
"It's the end of MY world!"  
  
Why had he wanted her to wake up so much? Oh well, as usual Mei had taken all of ten minutes to cheer him up and also make life twice as complicated. He heard a crunching sound as he walked out of the room, damn, he'd trod on his pager. Oh well.  
  
He returned with clothes and a mirror, unfortunately Mei was not allowed to keep the pyjamas, apparently the hospital was losing enough money without giving away clothes. Did they really expect to make a profit offering their services for free?  
  
"Could you buy me some pyjamas pwease Magus?" Mei begged  
  
"No, sorry, you used up your wish asking me for a date."  
  
"Could you just do it as a favour? Because I'm so pretty and you want me to be happy?"  
  
Magus sighed "I'll see what I can do Mei, I was going to anyway, I was only joking with you."  
  
"YAY!" Mei attached herself to Magus with speed that would have startled a striking snake. Magus' pager beeped again. He walked slowly over to it. He couldn't move too fast as Mei was firmly fastened to his left leg. He pick the pager up, it was shattered into a fair number of pieces, the battery was missing and the screen was cracked and hanging by a couple of wires. Still the message flashed across it, MEET ME IN ARENA 3.  
  
-.-.-.-.-  
  
Yeah I know that I took forever to write this chapter, but I was in London for a few days with a couple of nice girls (my sister was there too unfortunately) We went and saw a play, when Harry met sally. I know! Culture! OMG! Anyways, we did that, met some celebrities, Luke Perry, kinda snobbed his way past tori, but Laura got a picture taken with him, and Laura also got Alyson Hannigan's (this one time, at band camp) autograph, probably the happiest day of Laura's life. All in all it was a really cool couple of days. Then I got dragged off to Mery's house with Erith, I definitely prefer spending my time with nice girls than spending it with Mery and Erith. Ah well. Next chapter is already in progress, should be up a lot quicker than this one, till then later days! 


	26. Yet Another Bar Fight

Uhh I know it seems like I'm apologising every single chapter, and I am, this time the lack of updates is due to computer errors, which is to say, my PC has been so far up the wall that it is crawling along the ceiling. Sorry, nothing I can really do about it, hey I can't even install word onto this thing so this chapter is going to be written without the help of a grammar or spellings checker. May god have mercy upon the english language!  
  
Alice sat in the ready room nervously running a brush through her hair. The act was utterly pointless as all tangles had been eliminated more than 20 minutes ago. But this was going to be her first time on TV, she had to look her absolute best. Eventually Kyou tired of her constant hairdressing and took the brush off of her, storing it away in its seemingly infinite storeroom that it contained. With a lack of anything else to do Alice began twiddling with her fingers, she got so caught up in it that the arrival of her opponent made her jump. After she recovered from the shock she got to her feet and smoothed down her dress.  
  
"Hello, I'm Alice Arke, I'm your opponent." She extended one hand.  
  
"I'm Acarius, and I'm the person you will be losing to." There was a hint of sibilance to his speech. He took Alice's hand, but did not shake it, instead he raised it to shoulder height and sniffed politely. "Ahh you have a force's hand I see, but you have recently been handling a saber, interesting." Alice took her hand back, this Acarius was certainly a strange person. She sniffed him back. He smelled strongly of the forest, perhaps he had been training there recently? He also smelled a little of alcohol, but that didn't cover up the other scent, it was a strange smell, but not one that Alice hadn't encountered before, he had the smell of a reptile.  
  
"You're a snake." She said bluntly, then immediately realized how rude that was.  
  
"Quite right my little bunny rabbit, and we all know who here comes highest on the food chain don't we?"  
  
"Little bunny rabbits don't throw fireballs around do they?" Alice said as threateningly as she could manage.  
  
"Well that may be so, bunny rabbit, but you have yet to see what snakes can do." Acarius fell silent, seemingly content to wait for the match to begin without any idle chatter. This suited Alice just fine, the less Acarius talked the better. Bunny rabbit, she'd show him.  
  
"See Crimson? It's a perfectly nice place?"  
  
"I dunno Tatsu, it looks pretty busy, by law of numbers there must be at least one person in there who we won't get along with."  
  
"So we just don't talk to them! Stop being so difficult, people are starting to give us funny looks, we have to either go in now or leave." It was true, several passersby we now standing still and watching the two hunters argue.  
  
"Hmm, you promise that we're just going to eat here? No trying to socialize?"  
  
"I promise, now lets go! I'm so hungry my stomach is starting to think my throats been cut."  
  
The pair walked through the door to the bar and the small crowd of people quickly dissipated, returning to whatever tasks they had originally left their rooms for. What a disappointment, why would a pair of hunters argue for so long and not even fight?  
  
Tatsu guided Crimson over to a small out of the way table, this way there was less chance of any troublemakers approaching them, unfortunately it also reduced the chance of them being noticed by any of the serving staff. After the third failed attempt to flag down a waitress Crimson was getting impatient.  
  
He called out to the nearest waitress "Hey, if you'd wake up, some people want to order!"  
  
"Oh I'm sorry sir" The girl bowed "I didn't notice you there" another bow "You'll have to forgive me, it's my first day." A third bow. It was quite apparent that she was new to this job, looking past her Tatsu could see a number of men watching the movement of her short skirt as she bowed.  
  
"That's quite alright, miss?"  
  
"Akimoto, Ayaka Akimoto." Another bow, and a few more lecherous stares.  
  
"Miss Akimoto. I should be the one apologizing, my friend doesn't mean to be so rude, he's just hungry, isn't that right Crimson?" Tatsu's tone made it clear that Crimson's opinion in this was completely irrelevant.  
  
"Uhh, of course, can we place our order now?" Crimson was rapidly flicking through the menu.  
  
"Right" Ayaka nodded "So what will it be?"  
  
Crimson looked up from his menu "I'll have the miso soup please."  
  
"Umm that's not really a lunch type of meal sir." Ayaka said nervously.  
  
"Miso soup." Crimson repeated.  
  
"Erm of course sir, miso soup it is then." The waitress scribbled it down. "And you'll have?" She turned to Tatsu.  
  
"Umm chicken terayaki I guess."  
  
"Okay then, one miso soup and one chicken terayaki! Drinks?"  
  
"None for me thank you, soup is wet enough." Crimson said dryly.  
  
Tatsu thought about it for a moment "Uhh just water please."  
  
"Okay! Your meal will be ready in about ten to fifteen minutes, I'll be right back!" Ayaka started to walk away, got about five paces and then tripped over her own feet knocking into someone and spilling his drink. "Oh sorry sir! It was a complete accident! I'll get you a refill, free of charge."  
  
"Why are you being so awkward?" Tatsu whispered to Crimson "I thought you were trying to avoid being noticed."  
  
"I couldn't help it" Crimson grinned behind his mask "We got a cute waitress, I just wanted to make sure she'd remember me."  
  
"First, of course she would remember you, most other people here don't have MAGs floating behind them and we both ordered off of the Japanese menu, and second, of course we got a cute waitress, just look around and try and spot an ugly one."  
  
Crimson scanned the room, the only people he saw wearing waitress outfits were young and pretty.  
  
"I don't see any."  
  
"That's because there aren't any, job interviews here must be more like beauty pageants. This place was made to cater to all types of people, and who would want to be served by a fat hairy woman called Brenda?"  
  
"Looks like they're assuming that only guys would come here to eat."  
  
"Nope, look over on the far side of the room there, they hire guys as well."  
  
"Are you sure that's a guy? I mean sure they dress like one but they look like they should be sparkling."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Never mind. But I guess this place isn't so bad, can't say that the differently themed areas really do much for the place, but I suppose it makes the place unique."  
  
It definitely didn't seem like any bar Crimson had been in before, It was a classy establishment and Tatsu was right, it did cater to a wide range of people. He and Tatsu had chosen the oriental themed area, obviously, but there were areas for people of almost any nationality. He thought it somewhat strange that there was nobody in the English area of the room. It seemed they were all in the Japanese area ogling the waitresses.  
  
The two hunters sat in silence for a moment until Crimson spoke again "I give up, you win."  
  
"What do you mean I win?"  
  
"There is nothing wrong with this bar."  
  
"I had to get it right one day, and it looks like today is that day." Tatsu congratulated himself, perhaps a little prematurely.  
  
"Hey, bar wench! I ordered my drink over twenty minutes ago, how hard can it be to get some damned vodka." An obnoxious voice bellowed.  
  
The 'bar wench' being yelled at was none other than Ayaka.  
  
"I'm really sorry Mr. Nuclear, I'll get right on it sir." She turned to walk away and promptly tripped and landed flat on her face "oww."  
  
"Get up you idiot, if my drink isn't here in the next three minutes then I'm reporting you to the manager."  
  
"Man, I hate that guy." Tatsu fumed "I mean who does he think he is?"  
  
"You know him?" Crimson asked  
  
"Yeah, fought with him a couple of times, he's a complete and utter bastard."  
  
"Right" Crimson turned round in his seat "Hey Nuclear!! What do you think you're doing talking to the waitresses like that?"  
  
"Oh no." Tatsu groaned and attempted to shrink himself into invisibility.  
  
"I'll talk to waitresses however I damn well like, now if you'll shut the hell up I'm trying to get drunk."  
  
Crimson got out of his chair and helped Ayaka to her feet. "Either you apologize to this young lady, or I will make you apologize."  
  
"Hah, you and who else?"  
  
"Me and my buddy Tatsu. C'mon Tatsu, you're up to correcting this guys attitude. right?  
  
"Tatsu?" Chimpus blinked "Hey it is you." He walked straight past Crimson ignoring him completely. "Hey Tatsu, why aren't you here with Alice?"  
  
"If you must know, Alice is in a match and I'm just here for lunch, now kindly go the hell away."  
  
"Touchy little midget aren't we? What's the matter? Alice not giving you any?"  
  
Tatsu stood up fast, red in the face. But Crimson moved even faster. In the time it took to blink he had spun Chimpus round and had an autogun pointed at his face.  
  
"You never, ever say things like that about either of my friends ever again. Are we clear?"  
  
"Hmph, if I'd have know that there was a meeting of the Alice Arke fan club I would have brought my hat and badge."  
  
"I asked you a damn question. Are we clear?" Crimson repeated.  
  
"Yeah we're clear." Crimson put away the autogun and Chimpus straightened his collar. "Next time tell me when it's your time of the month."  
  
Tatsu grabbed Crimson's arm "Come on, just ignore it, let's not get into a fight for once."  
  
"That's right Tatsu, back down, you coward."  
  
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"  
  
Crimson suddenly realized he was still holding onto Ayaka "I suggest you go and get security or something, this won't end quietly." He whispered before letting her go. Ayaka nodded and hurried away.  
  
"I called you a coward, what's the matter? Couldn't you hear me down there?" Chimpus continued his taunting.  
  
"One more word out of you and they'll have to identify you by your dental records." Tatsu was getting pretty angry and Rudra was preparing itself for a fight.  
  
"You couldn't even touch me if you tried." Chimpus drew his weapon and Tatsu summoned his in response.  
  
"Tatsu, whatever you do, don't fight back, security guards are going to be here soon." Crimson hissed then drew a saber and stood by Tatsu's side. If Tatsu had heard his warning he gave no sign. But at least he waited for Chimpus to swing first.  
  
There was a buzz of photon upon photon as Tatsu parried Chimpus' hasty lunge. The two circled each other like vultures, each waiting for the other to make a move. Several patrons had gathered round, this was a much more entertaining spectacle than scantily clad waitresses. Crimson had taken a place amongst the small crowd and was taking bets.  
  
There was another flash and another buzz. This time Tatsu had been the one to attack. Chimpus almost stumbled attempting to block using his unwieldy gigush. He switched it for a brand and the match soon became a display of fencing technique.  
  
Lunge, parry, riposte, and disengage. It was a familiar pattern for Tatsu and he was slowly gaining an advantage due to his experience with the fighting style. As Crimson had often commented, fencing was a lot like dancing, except your dance partner usually isn't trying to kill you.  
  
Just as Tatsu was finding his rhythm and was about to press the attack, Chimpus made an unexpected move. He made a downward slash with his brand, which Tatsu moved to block, but a split second before the blow landed Chimpus switched back to using his gigush. The extra weigh behind the blow numbed Tatsu's arm to the shoulder. He neatly flicked his buster to his other arm.  
  
"Ha, lets see if you're any good with that cybernetic limb of yours."  
  
Tatsu fervently hoped he was, a little slip in concentration would reduce response time and maybe even prove fatal. Chimpus sliced across, Tatsu ducked and responded with an upwards slash which Chimpus avoided quite easily by stepping backwards.  
  
"Haha, thought so, using that robot arm has made you slow."  
  
Tatsu attacked furiously but Chimpus blocked each of his wild slashes, albeit with some difficulty, he then dropped to the floor and with a vicious sweep he knocked Tatsu off his feet. He missed his next blow by a wide margin as Tatsu rolled to his left instead of his right as Chimpus had anticipated.  
  
Suddenly both combatants were immobile. It seemed that a force by the door had struck them both with a Rimit technique. Crimson was impressed, very few people knew how to do Rimit, he'd have to ask Alice if she knew it.  
  
"I am tournament security officer Ryodo!" The force shouted "I demand to know what is going on here."  
  
Crimson stepped forwards "My friend and I were sitting here waiting for our lunch when this hunter" He gestured to indicate Chimpus "attacked my friend, I believe that he is somebody my friend defeated in the arena."  
  
The force cast anti on Chimpus and Tatsu. "Is what this ranger says true?" He addressed Chimpus  
  
"Well yes, it is true, but-"  
  
"No buts, you're under arrest."  
  
"What about him?" Chimpus pointed at Tatsu, "he was fighting too!"  
  
Ryodo shook his head "It appears he was acting in self defense, he is free to go." He turned to address Tatsu "But any more reports of you fighting outside of the arena and action will be taken against you."  
  
"But that's not fair!" Chimpus complained as he was dragged away.  
  
People began to return to their meals now that the action was over, Crimson however was still standing and even behind his mask it was obvious he was grinning like an idiot.  
  
"What?" Tatsu asked suspiciously  
  
"This is the first time I've been to a bar with you and someone else got arrested when we didn't."  
  
Tatsu also broke into a smile "That's not true, we ran away once or twice."  
  
"Umm misters Tatsu and Crimson?" A small voice asked "Your food is ready." Ayaka was standing by their table, their tray of food already set down..  
  
"Thanks miss Akimoto." Crimson sat back down "How much is it?"  
  
"Thirty meseta sir" Ayaka bowed.  
  
Tatsu shot Crimson a look, at any other place Crimson would be more than a little upset about the cost.  
  
"Okay, here's the money, and some for yourself." Crimson handed over the money cheerfully. Ayaka accepted it with a bow and then hurried off, blushing deeply.  
  
Tatsu stared at Crimson in disbelief "Crimson, you just tipped her fifteen meseta."  
  
"I know." Crimson responded "But she did help us out by getting that security guy."  
  
"You gave her fifteen meseta just for that?"  
  
"No, for that I gave her ten, the other five was because she is young, pretty and she remembered my name."  
  
"You know Crimson, sometimes you are a kind, generous and all round likeable guy."  
  
"I know, my father would have been ashamed of me."  
  
"Are we there yet?" Kilili complained for what seemed like the twentieth time.  
  
"No we are not damn well there, you'll know when we're there because we'll bloody well be there!" After her brief burst of niceness the other night Psilo had quickly reverted to being grumpy and irritable.  
  
"We should be getting close, I think that's the greenhouse up ahead." Kinami informed them.  
  
"That's still there?" Ryzada asked  
  
"Oh of course, Asrith likes gardening, he says its good for stress"  
  
"I can still remember that greenhouse from when I was little, there were always such interesting things in there, lots of bright colors and exotic smells." Ryzada said with a wistful sigh.  
  
"Its still like that now, and I believe the strawberry plants should have ripened by now."  
  
"I love strawberries" Kilili squealed and ran off ahead "Last one there doesn't get any strawberries!"  
  
"Kilili get back here! This is not a safe place to be running off on your own." Psilo called after her "Dammit" she muttered under her breath and took off after her friend. Kinami and Ryzada looked at each other and shrugged, then ran in pursuit of the other two party members.  
  
They finally caught up, but only because Kilili had stopped running, Kinami was a little out of breath.  
  
"C'mon Kinami." Kilili complained "We didn't run that far."  
  
"Well, I'm not, a hunter, I'm just, a scientist." Kinami wheezed.  
  
"Yes you are a hunter." Ryzada observed, "You move like somebody who is familiar with fighting."  
  
"Not all fighters are hunters you know." Kinami replyed, after he took another few gulps of air the party continued moving.  
  
"Asrith calls this a green house?" Psilo said "It looks more like a jungle."  
  
"It's like home." Ryzada sighed happily and trailed a finger along a vine.  
  
"You are a very strange person Ryzada, anyone would think that you liked living here."  
  
"Oh come on now Psilo, that's not being fair, everyone misses the place they were born don't they Ryzada?" Kilili was also quite happy amongst the plants.  
  
"No, Psilo's right." Ryzada replied "I did like living here, it's a wonderful place."  
  
"Then why'd you leave? Kilili asked.  
  
"Because I couldn't stand being around Asrith, he was very strange back then." Ryzada rubbed her arm uncomfortably "I was kind of a daughter to him and kind of a test subject."  
  
"A test subject?" Kilili echoed "That's awful."  
  
"Not really, I can see why he was interested, the very first Newman was half cat, and until me there weren't any cat newmans on pioneer 2."  
  
"I see." Kilili nodded, but still thought it was terrible, then something caught her eye. "Hey that's a dragon flower! I've only seen them in documentaries.  
  
Psilo looked at it "Why's it called a dragon flower?" She prodded the stem, the flower bud opened and spat a gob of fire at her. "What the hell is this nutter doing planting fire breathing plants?!?"  
  
"Actually I planted it." Ryzada wrapped her fingers fondly round the plants bright orange petals. "I planted it here when I was only four months old, I was so sad that I didn't get to see it flower for the first time, I can't believe Asrith kept it alive all this time."  
  
"You planted a flower when you were four months old? Kilili said dubiously "Pretty smart baby."  
  
Ryzada shrugged "It's a newman thing, accelerated growth and enhanced learning abilities during the first few years of life. I'm normal now though."  
  
"As normal as a person who plants fire breathing flowers can be." Psilo muttered "It's been lovely reminiscing about your childhood, really it has, but can we get a move on?"  
  
"I really don't think that would be a good idea." Kinami said.  
  
"Oh? And why not?" Psilo demanded "Got more lethal plants to see have we?"  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact, if you'd care to look down, there is a venomous tendril wrapping itself around your leg right now, I'd suggest you don't move."  
  
Psilo looked down and suddenly became very very still. There was a vine as thick as her wrist curling itself around her ankle. "Someone? Please? GET THIS DAMNED THING OFF OF ME!"  
  
"Just a moment, we cant just set fire to it or hack it off, It would sting you, and then you would have all of forty seconds to live." Kinami said calmly "Does anyone have any ideas?"  
  
"Umm I might" Kilili volunteered.  
  
"Well please hurry up before this stupid plant throttles me" Psilo was starting to panic, the vine had reached her knees.  
  
"It should let go if we tickle it." Kilili's tone made it apparent that she wasn't entirely certain.  
  
"Tickle it? That's your idea? Tickle the evil plant?"  
  
"Well its either that or we just let it kill you."  
  
"Please, be my guest, tickle away."  
  
Kilili brushed the length of the vine with her fingertips and it fell limply from Psilo's leg .  
  
"How the hell did you know that it would let go if you tickled it?" Psilo asked.  
  
Kilili shrugged "where do I learn anything? The TV of course."  
  
Psilo rolled her eyes "Of course, now if its alright with everyone, can we get out of here?"  
  
"I think it would be best that we did" replied Kinami "God alone knows what else is in here."  
  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
  
Okay, I have taken forever and ever with this update, I know, please don't kill me, there are major problems with my PC, the other one can't even access the net, and this one is prone to closing word while I'm in the middle of writing, needless to say, I'm not impressed with it.  
  
Post AN, Yeah, there is a lot of Japanese things in this fic... this is because It's actually easier for me to make up Japanese names and think of Japanese food than it is for me to use English stuff. Besides "John the force" really doesn't sound all too cool. What the hell do English restaurants serve for lunch anyway? 


	27. Androgynous

Okay this story has been in a state of zero progress for a while now, uhh umm how to try and make this so that it isn't my fault? Damn, I can't, If I'd have put the effort in, this story would have been continued sooner, but I didn't, I procrastinated and then got hit by several unfortunate events, PC dying, me being ill, losing my back ups, etc. But now I'm back in the swing of things, and chapters will be made!

Alice walked towards the bright light that was the entrance to the arena. Acarius was walking next to her, but she wasn't paying attention to him. All she was aware of was the crowd, those thousands of cheering people who in a few short moments would be watching her every move. It was okay though, she was just nervous, everybody got nervous when they were in front of so many people. She thought of Tatsu, yeah, he'd be nervous, he'd much rather hide. She thought of Ryzada, yup, she'd be too scared to move to begin with. She thought of Crimson, smiling and waving to the crowd, why couldn't she be more like Crimson? Maybe it was because he had a mask to hide behind? Or maybe he just didn't think about it at all.

"I know how you're feeling" Acarius' voice made Alice jump "just another twenty feet, and all those people will be watching you, judging you. Haha, in a way they'll be like hawks, watching us fight."

"It's not going to work Acarius, you can't make me nervous like that" Alice said firmly, hoping that she spoke the truth.

"Who said I was trying to make you nervous, just sharing my feelings, that's all. The crowd always makes me nervous, the noise and the lights don't help either." Alice tried hard not to think about it. "This is a major match you know, everyone with a ticket will have turned up" Acarius continued, "I mean, there's even a film crew here"

Alice stopped momentarily, she'd forgotten about the cameras. If the fight was on film, that meant anyone who wanted to could see it. It might even be shown on TV, then everyone on pioneer would see each and every mistake she made. She shook her head, this wasn't the right way to think. She had to try and be like Crimson, just accept that the people were there, don't let them get to her, and put on a good show. She began walking again.

The two fighters stood just at the doorway. Alice turned to Acarius and said "It doesn't matter who wins, people are expecting a show, and I'm going to give them one"

"Well you do just that, bunny. I on the other hand will be trying to win this match as quickly as possible.

Alice stepped forwards into the lights and was greeted by enthusiastic cheers and whistles. Acarius however, was booed when he stepped out. Had the crowd already decided he was the bad guy? Or was it something he'd done in a previous fight? Whatever the reason, Alice was reassured to have the crowd behind her, she took a quick glance over at Acarius, he didn't seem bothered by the audiences reaction to his appearance, in fact he seemed to be revelling in their dislike. Alice gripped her staff tightly, she'd have to be ready for anything.

Magus walked purposefully towards arena 3, hundreds of questions racing through his mind. Who was calling him here? Why? Was it a trap? If so it was a trap set by a very stupid person, Magus had dedicated so many years of his life to fighting, spent so much time practicing that no matter what move he made, it had been done a thousand times before. His mind calmed, reassured by the knowledge that he was Magus Black, and nobody on this ship was his equal as a fighter.

Despite no longer dwelling on what may lie ahead, Magus was still not safe from questions, these ones much more difficult to answer. Where was he going to take Mei, Why did she want to be there with him anyway? What did she want from him? Was it even anything that he could give?

Magus was thankful when he reached the arena, thankful that he didn't have to continue to think about what he was going to do with Mei. But as he stepped out onto the arena sands, he saw nobody there waiting for him. He carried on walking forwards, checking his watch. He was on time, which meant that whoever wanted to meet him was late. He remembered thinking this before.

"Alright, stop hiding, I know you're here" he said quietly. A hand caressed his cheek.

"You're no fun, did you know that? Everyone else is fooled by my invisibility trick every single time." A soft feminine voice sounded from very nearby. Magus turned to see exactly the person he was expecting, black robe, silver hair, no other visible features.

"You know what they say" He shrugged "fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice? But lets cut the chit-chat, why am I here."

"I can only assume you're here because your curiosity wouldn't allow you to be anywhere else right now. What I think you mean is why did I want you to be here, and I'm not too sure I should answer that"

"And why not?" Magus demanded, "I think I deserve an explanation."

"Very well, I wanted to talk to you because of an ancient prophecy. It speaks of a war between two great powers, a war in which the deciding factor is neither power, but those that the powers are fighting over, I represent one of those powers and believe that his is the side I should fight on."

"Yes, I've heard that prophecy." Magus said "But one, the right side for you, may not be the right side for me, and two, that prophecy will never be realised, the powers it speaks of are dead."

"You are a student of oni-ken, amongst many other fighting forms, the moves you displayed earlier were demon fist techniques, they wouldn't work if one of those powers were truly dead, and you know that he cannot exist without she, they may have been dead once, but reincarnation goes forever"

Magus' eyes narrowed "How do you know that."

"It's what I pieced together after some research, after that I sought out the greater of the two powers and proffered my services."

"Kali, I believe that is what you call yourself isn't it? The inner workings of oni-ken, the prophecy you spoke of, and the knowledge of the two powers. All of them were written on sacred scrolls, scrolls kept by extremely powerful men, they would not have surrendered their secrets easily."

Kali shrugged "I wouldn't call them extremely powerful, although one of them was a pretty tough old man, would you believe he marked me before he died?"

"That man was my master, he was my only friend and a good and noble man, and you openly admit to killing him? Magus said calmly, even though he was boiling over with rage.

"Well yes, I suppose I do, He was in my way, the scroll he was keeping was the last part of a little puzzle I had been gathering pieces of."

"You came here to recruit me didn't you? And you think this is going to make me join you!"

"No, I'm just telling you this to give you a reason to hate me, I knew the moment you stepped foot inside this arena that you would be of no use to us. You're too weak, too easily angered and too easily lead to be of any help. Honestly a pretty face and a cute smile and you're eating out of her hand. Perhaps if I killed Mei you would concentrate enough to be useful?"

"YOU LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!" Magus roared

"Touched a nerve have I? If the idea of harm coming to your poor innocent little girlfriend makes you angry, you're going to love this part. Remember that soldier? The one you were interrogating oh so delicately?" Magus clenched his fists and grit his teeth "I killed him, from the other side of the ship I could tell he was going to betray me, and I caused his death with a thought."

"YOU BITCH!" Magus yelled, tears coming to his eyes "All those years of suffering, in exile because showing my face would mean death. All those goddamn years of my life wasted living in pioneer 2's underworld, years I'll never get back, and its your fault!"

Kali shrugged, a gesture she was apparently fond of "In the grand scheme of things, those years are as unimportant as you are."

"I'll goddamned kill you!" It was the same as in the arena when Mei was hurt. Only this time Magus' anger wasn't directed at every living thing, this time it had only one focal point. Kali.

A lightning fast punch blurred the air. But that was all it connected with. Kali had moved a foot to the left. Another punch, another miss. A flurry of blows, none of them hit their target. And finally a roundhouse kick, aimed at a head that wasn't there anymore. Kali was now floating above Magus, a black sphere pulsing in her hand.

"You see? You're weak and slow, we don't need you on our side, you may do as you wish with the rest of your life, it matters not at all." She threw the energy ball and Magus shielded himself with his arms. There was a blast of darkness and a cry from Magus as pain nagged at the edge of his senses. Kali raised an eyebrow "stronger than you look, but no matter." She flung another ball of darkness. But Magus was already moving,

Ball after ball struck nothing, as they moved through the air too slowly to hit their target.

"You are beginning to annoy me Magus" Kali swooped down to land in front of him and threw a punch. Magus dodged it and returned a punch of his own. It landed, but only because Kali didn't move. There was a horrible crack as the bones in Magus' hand broke. Kali laughed, the sound didn't fit her voice, what was once soft and feminine was now hard and cruel.

"You're pretty quick Magus, maybe in time you'll be as quick as me, but I think not, your power lies in anger, and you can't be angry forever." Even in his enhanced state of being, Magus didn't see the punch coming, or the 14 after that that struck him before he fell out of range.

"Well it's been fun Magus, but I have other things to do today, no more time for playing with children." Magus saw Kali blow him a kiss and disappear, after that his anger left him, taking his strength with it. He blacked out.

Mei sat on the edge of the bed, her legs hanging over the edge. "Mery?" she asked suddenly "What do you think of Magus and me?"

"I have no feelings regarding either of you, why should I?"

"I don't know, I guess that I thought you would, seeing as how you've worked and lived with us and... hey! I was the one who was asking questions, not you!"

"I answered your question, do you have any further queries?" Sometimes it was as if Mery was being dense on purpose, but that wasn't possible, in order to act so stupid, he would have to be a genius.

"Nuh uh, I don't know why I asked you anyway, you've never given anyone a useful answer." Mei kicked her legs forward and propelled herself off of the bed.

"That is not true, I have provided useful information on exactly 36 occasions in the last week alone."

"And you remember every time you answer a question like that?" Mei was running a brush through her hair, examining her outfit for creases, and checking to see if she needed to apply make-up, all at the same time. She had got being vain down to an art form.

"Yes, and it is now 37 times this week."

"Wow, that's amazing, I'd never be able to remember stuff like that!"

"I am an android, I can recall anything that I have witnessed since the moment of my activation."

"Oh yeah, I forget that sometimes." Mei paused in the tying of one of her hair ribbons "What's it like being an android?"

"It is..." Mery pondered this for a while "heavy" he decided "being an android is very heavy."

"Oh" Mei said, disappointed "I don't think I'd like being an android, I have to watch my figure you know."

"Why? It isn't going anywhere."

"Yes it is, I'm going to take my figure and move it over to see Alice."

"Why?"

"Gawd, I thought you didn't have any interest in anything, what's with all the questions?"

"Magus has told me to watch over you until he gets back, therefore I need to know exactly what to tell him when he gets back and you are not here."

"Umm okay" Mei wasn't sure that made much sense "But anyway, its girl stuff, you and Magus wouldn't want to hear it, so there" She stuck her tongue out.

"I am a girl, so it's okay for me to hear it."

"You are?!?"

"I might be, I am not entirely certain, I was never assigned a gender, and as androids go, I am pretty androgynous."

"Umm is androgy-whatsit something to do with androids?"

"No, It means I could be of either gender, it is difficult to tell."

"So I can trust you with girly stuff then?" Mei was dubious

"I believe so, also you can password the data regarding the conversation so that it is impossible for me to tell anyone else."

"Yay!" Mei wrapped herself round Mery "I always wanted a secret diary!"

"Nobody keeps secrets better than androids, and I would prefer it if you didn't call me a diary, I have other functions you know."

"Yeah yeah" Mei waved her hand dismissively "but none of them work, anyways, I'm gonna tell you something, and I want your opinion, but you gotta keep it a total secret ESPECIALLY from Magus."

"No problem, he is only my owner, I have no difficulty in lying to him."

"Kay, here goes" Mei took a deep breath "I think I'm in love with Magus, I mean really in love with him, but I don't think he loves me the same way. I mean why would he? He's all big and brave and handsome, and I'm just a silly little girl who is no good as a hunter and no good as a friend either. He was counting on me to help him in the arena and I just messed up and got hurt, and he thinks its his fault and I feel really bad about it, and I'm taking advantage of his guilt by making him go on a date with me, I'm such a horrible evil person. What if he doesn't want to date me? What if the only reason in the whole world that he would do anything with me is because he feels responsible for nearly getting me killed? I've screwed up everything, now I'll never know how he feels about me." Mei sat on the floor and started crying and breathing deep, heavy breaths

"I don't know why I'm even telling you all this because you're just a computer and you don't even understand things like love and guilt, but I really had to get this out." Now she really started crying, all the tears she'd bottled up by keeping happy for Magus. And then she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"You are right Mei, I do not understand things like love and guilt. But I understand you. Magus does like you, but he is hesitant to make a move, he is too worried he will do something wrong, because he has never done it before. It is probably best if you take charge of things."

"Magus has never gone out with anyone before? I thought he would have been with lots of women, all smart and strong like him."

"No, you are the first"

Mei immediately cheered up "Yay, I'll have to show him how to do everything, teach him to right things to say and do and, eeeeeeeeeeee this is going to be so much fun."

"If you say so"

"Of course it will be fun, silly, I get to boss Magus around. Hey... wait a minute, what do you mean you don't understand emotions but you understand me? That doesn't make sense."

"I know it doesn't, I think the same part of me that knows my gender also knows the feelings you have."

"You STILL don't make sense."

"I may not make sense, but today's chat has greatly increased the amount of useful information I have provided."

"Yeah, you really made me feel better, thank you so much!" Mei hugged Mery tightly, tears in her eyes once more.

"You need to set a password for the data pertaining to our conversation."

Mei thought for a while, butterfly immediately sprang to mind, it was something she could easily remember. But she didn't want this conversation to be remembered, not a single word of it ever needed repeating, she needed a password that nobody would guess and that she would not remember.

"Androgynous"

-----------------------------------------

YES! Finally, a new chapter! Heh heh what would an anime be without the seemingly omnipotent bad guy, well bad gal this time. Shock developments, Mei isn't entirely stupid, and Mery isn't entirely useless. Hmm curse myself for liking a good old romance, concentrating a lot on Magus and Mei, they are NOT the main characters. Gawd, Magus started off as simply being Ravens sidekick... oh yeah, Raven... oops


End file.
